1. Compare your message to something or someone familiar
Examples:
- A Cuban, after apologizing because he could not offer his guests anything to eat, described the results of Castro’s Revolution: “The three successes were education, healthcare and sports. Three failures were breakfast, lunch and dinner.”
- “I call architecture frozen music.” ~ Johann Wolfgag von Goethe
2. Evoke a vivid, mental picture
Example:
“Ten times as much funding is devoted to research on the prevention of male baldness as malaria, a disease that kills more than one million people each year.”
~ Bill Gates on the need for creative capitalism to serve more people.
3. Say it briefly so it can be easily remembered and repeated as you said it.
Example:
“We can bail out the economy – we cannot bail out the environment.” ~ John Doerr, partner, Kleiner, Perkins Caufield & Byers
4. Make it aspirational – compare to something they want to gain – or avoid
Example:
- Jenny Kruger finds out that even the finest four-star restaurant is no match for one with 4 million stars.” ~ REI advertisement
What are some of your favorite characterizations?
I can’t help but end with two inadvertently humorous characterizations of situations. While others probably repeated what they said, it is probably to their chagrin.
- “Those who are not imprisoned are often arrested for possession of small quantities of drugs and later released — in some cases with a permanent stain on their records that can make it difficult to get a job or start a young person on a path to future arrests.” ~ An unnamed prison reform advocate.
- “The top half of the students are well-educated, the bottom half receive extra help, but the middle half we are leaving out.” ~ Marcia Neal, candidate for a state Board of Education and a retired schoolteacher.
