What Representative Emanuel Cleaver, II can teach us about alliteration and marketing/PR.

Yesterday our government finally passed legislation that raised the debt ceiling and supposedly tackled some areas of our government’s budget issues. The drama behind this legislation was played out for weeks in the media. Today the new’s coverage is focusing on Missouri Congressman Emanuel Cleaver and his candid comment that when you look beneath the surface this deal is really just a “sugar coated satan sandwich”. I watched Rep. Barney Frank voice his objections to the deal last night and couldn’t remember one thing he said. Obviously, neither could the media, because Rep. Cleaver had all the guest spots this morning. People are talking about Cleaver and now people are talking about the deal. What struck me as interesting about this is how the simple use of outlandish alliteration was all it took to get the media/pr machine rolling. Nancy Pelosi is supposedly credited with saying the deal is served with an order of satan fries. Again, this doesn’t really have the same legs as the triple “s” threat of “sugar coated satan sandwich”. And whether he did it on purpose or not, Cleaver nailed another alliteration goody this morning by throwing in the “demon drink” addition.

So what lesson can marketing/PR professionals take away from this? It’s simple. People like things that are slightly outlandish and catchy. We like things that are easily remembered and what better way to remember something than the elementary use of alliteration.