Know the Messenger

How easy it is to make people believe a lie, and [how] hard it is to undo that work again!

-Mark Twain

“Doctor Patient Unity” on the surface is an organization that cares about the rights of patients. It uses the same fear of creating a barrier between doctors and patients that has successfully stopped universal healthcare from becoming a reality in the US since 1947. Their goal is to fight the legislation designed to reduce surprise billing, but their motivation is pure profit. https://www.nytimes.com/2019/09/13/upshot/surprise-billing-laws-ad-spending-doctor-patient-unity.html.

Seeing their ads on TV relentlessly depicting closed hospitals and patients being kicked out of emergency waiting rooms struck me as fear mongering from the beginning. The New York Times investigated and found that the money behind the messages were private-equity-backed doctor staffing companies. This is no real surprise. Corporate and private money behind politics is the price we accept for our representative democracy, and it touches every aspect of commerce. Hearing this message hidden behind a false ally highlights the most important principle for any consumer trying to successfully navigate a complex environment: Know the messenger.

Knowing who is behind a message is a valuable but often buried fact that can influence the receiver’s actions and influence trust. Trust is the foundation of a relationship needed to make mutually satisfying transactions in good faith. We readily give our trust when the messenger is packaged properly, such as celebrity endorsers using their social capital to create a shortcut to gain our confidence. Trust is also created quickly through expensive, high-production visual effects that leverage our belief in the equation of quality to price. We trust the people we recognize like the characters who remind us of our family, ourselves, and other “real people” delivering sincerity in their message.

These paths to creating trust are well known and available to anyone seeking to build customers and create no dilemma when the products are frivolous or aimed only at disposable income. For products that impact basic needs, authenticity should be a factor. To be a better consumer of messages there are three tools that are more precise than simply believing everyone is trying to fool you. Taken from some of the same principles used to help kids recognize the power of advertisement https://mediasmarts.ca/tipsheet/talking-kids-about-advertising-tip-sheet, these three points can serve you in evaluating any message.

1. Discuss the call to action with someone and decide who benefits the most.

When you take a message at face value there is always a call to action: contact your senator; buy this product; change your store. The person or group who benefits should be clear. In the case of the “Doctor Patient Unity” commercials, the benefit is implied that patients will benefit because hospitals won’t close. We should all be able to clearly identify and support the person or group that we value and make a clear connection between our action and the outcome. The source of the message should not be hidden.

2. Identify which emotion the message targets.

We are wired to avoid risks and danger so fear is commonly used in many of the calls to action. Nostalgia can create a positive association with a product and reluctance to leave. Laughter entertains but rarely motivates, and anger is one of the most potent action-driving emotions available. Acknowledging the emotion dilutes some of the impact, especially recognizing anger and fear. Anger drove me to write this piece.

3. Imagine a completely different messenger.

Would the call to action work if it was given by a local news personality, a trusted professional, or a media superstar? The messenger matters in the level of trust we give. Some messengers are worth listening to because of their expertise others are not. By recognizing the influence the messenger may have, we are better equipped to see the message without being deceived.

The mental energy required to evaluate the hundreds of messages we receive every day would be enormous. These tools are not for the many frivolous and disposable decisions we make each day. This scrutiny is aimed at messages with calls to action that have a significant cost of resources: time, money or energy. With the same relentless energy advertisers use to influence our actions, we can use our energy to recognize and confront the messages that don’t match our values.