Interesting article. I loved the ad - very creative and humorous. Your article has me thinking beyond just politics. What are the messages that work and why?

The church has similar problems. As do educational institutions. I think what we are facing is not just a Democrat party issue, but an institutional issue. Institutions exist to maintain the status quo - regardless of how healthy or unhealthy that status quo is. The energy and creativity comes from movements.

Learn from examples - regardless of their source. The Tea Party had life because it was a movement. Occupy Wall Street had life because it was a movement. Opposite ends of the political spectrum, but both movements. They lost steam when they were enveloped into the institutions closest to their ideological position. It's a case of the institution seeing life somewhere, coopting it and sucking the life out of it in order to gain something and kill off any potential threat to the institution - in those cases the political parties.

You want a message that will resonate, then look to launch a movement that resists being enveloped by an institution, unless you can take over the institution and reshape it. Institutions offer order and structure, financial support, and advancement opportunities. They are focused on maintaining, and some improving. Movements though are creative and innovative, abstract and messy. They are entrepreneurial and might survive or die quickly. They require something new to go after on a regular basis. This means building in the death/end of a movement right at the beginning. But the end doesn't have to be permanent. One thing ends, but it leads to what?

I would also recommend two books. One is older, but still valuable - Switch by Dan and Chip Heath. The other is Change by Damon Centola. Both are excellent talking about how change happens. Change talks about the bad assumptions we have made about cultural change. The key is not influencers, but rather existing relationships because they are built on trust. It's really hard to implement change if there isn't trust.

Thanks again for a great article.