How one campaign ad actually *reduced* partisan animosity
Plus: Until last night I had no idea James Madison even had a crystal flute, but since Lizzo played it, it’s all I can think about
Hello, in this issue we’ll look at…
How one campaign ad actually *reduced* partisan animosity
I hate to break it to you, but this federal intelligence logo with a UFO isn’t official
Until last night I had no idea James Madison even had a crystal flute, but since Lizzo played it, it’s all I can think about
Subscribe to 𝘠𝘌𝘓𝘓𝘖 to see the visual trends, marketing, art, and design defining the look of politics delivered twice a week:
How one campaign ad actually *reduced* partisanship
Campaign ads aren’t a genre of advertising known for bringing Americans together, but it is possible.
New research about “One Nation,” a joint ad released in 2020 by Utah’s Democratic and Republican gubernatorial candidates, found that watching the ad reduced viewers’ support for undemocratic practices, like forgoing democratic principles for partisan gain or using violence against members of another party.
In the ad, Republican Gov. Spencer Cox and Democratic candidate Chris Peterson take turns talking about their shared values, and both commit to accepting the results of the presidential election.
The bipartisan PSA was tested by Stanford University’s Strengthening Democracy Challenge. Researchers sorted through 252 interventions sent in by social scientists, activists, and others for how to depolarize and reduce anti-democratic beliefs. They selected 25 interventions to show to 31,000 U.S. partisans, and found 23 of them reduced partisan animosity “significantly.”
The Utah ad, submitted by University of Utah assistant professor Ben Lyons, was one of the most effective, outperforming more than half of the interventions when it came to reducing support for partisan violence and undemocratic practices.
Some other top-performing interventions were “Civity Storytelling,” a series of short videos about Americans from different backgrounds talking about themselves, and Heineken’s 2017 British “Worlds Apart” ad in which people with opposing views on feminism, climate change, and transgender identity get to know each other and talk about their differences over beers. In another high-performing intervention, Democrats and Republicans were asked their views across a range of issues and learned most members of the other party weren’t as extreme as they imagined.
The research provides best practices for how to reduce partisan animosity, and there’s a few common themes among the most effective interventions:
Show people with different political beliefs who are relatable and sympathetic
Show areas of common cross-party identity
Show empathy towards and perceived similarity to members of another party
While the paper is packed with good news for those who want to lower the heat in U.S. politics and make good on “e pluribus unum,” there are some specific post-Jan. 6 challenges. For one, an ad like “One Nation” couldn’t happen today in races with candidates who deny the results of the 2020 election, and there are 201 of them, according to FiveThirtyEight.
Some efforts to reduce partisanship can also do the opposite. One intervention, “Democratic Fear,” was a top performer for reducing support for undemocratic practices and partisan animosity, but it actually increased support for political violence, driven by Republican viewers. The video showed facts about democratic erosion and footage of political violence in Zimbabwe, Venezuela, Russia, and Turkey, and then asked “Could it happen here?,” followed by footage of the attack at the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021. Researchers suggested this footage increase support among Republicans since many believe the attack was a legitimate protest.
You can see all 25 interventions here.
I hate to break it to you, but this federal intelligence logo with a UFO isn’t official
I want to believe the U.S. government was trying to tell us something with the new logo for the National Intelligence Manager for Aviation, showing a flying saucer, but all I can tell you is it’s not official.
Eagle-eyed ufologist Jeremy Corbell noticed the unusual logo on the website for the aviation advisers to the Office of the Director of National Intelligence over the weekend. It showed the outline for a number of different aircraft including a UFO.
The ODNI, however, said the image is not an official logo. A spokesman for the office told me, “NIM Aviation erroneously posted an unofficial and incorrect logo.”
Cached versions of the website show the flying saucer logo didn’t appear on the site as far back as June, but it was online at least earlier this month. Here’s NIM Aviation’s current logo, which doesn’t have a UFO but has an eagle holding lightning bolts, which is always badass:
So how exactly did an unauthorized logo make it onto a U.S. intelligence web page? An ODNI spokesperson didn’t answer my question about that, but on the UFO subreddit, some users are wondering if it was a hack or joke.
Whatever it was, the U.S. government has opened up more recently about UFOs… excuse me ~UAPs~. Defense officials testified earlier this year as part of the first congressional hearing on the topic since 1969 and said more than 400 reports of “unidentified aerial phenomena” have been made.
Until last night I had no idea James Madison even had a crystal flute, but since Lizzo played it, it’s all I can think about
“James Madison’s crystal flute” is a string of words I never imagined together before. It sounds like something Nicolas Cage would steal, a secret talisman of America’s founding. Now that it’s been played by a Grammy Award winning bop star, I can’t help but feel like we as a nation have leveled up. Like an American Ocarina of Time, bitch.
Lizzo played the flute Tuesday at the Washington, D.C., stop of her Special Tour. The singer and classically trained flautist called the experience “like playing out of a wine glass, bitch, so be patient.”
Madison’s flute was made in 1813 by French clockmaker Claude Laurent and gifted to the fourth U.S. president for his second inauguration that year, according to the Library of Congress. Flutes at that time were typically made of wood or ivory, but Laurent was known for making his from glass and crystal (and he made one for Napoleon Bonaparte too). The flute was saved when the British burned the White House during the War of 1812, and Lizzo is the first to ever play it.
It’s one of roughly 1,700 flutes in the Library’s collection, which is the largest in the world. Ahead of Lizzo’s show, Librarian of Congress Carla Hayden invited the singer to stop by and see the collection, and the singer took her up on the offer.
Lizzo played Madison’s flute at the Library of Congress’ Great Hall and Main Reading Room (see more photos from that performance here), and requested to play it at her show. Getting the flute to D.C.’s Capital One Arena was a high-security process that required help from the Library’s collection, preservation and security teams, per Library public affairs specialist Brett Zongker.
Lizzo asked fans at her show to “make some noise for James Madison’s crystal flute, y’all,” trilled a few notes, and twerked. “History is freaking cool you guys,” she said. I agree.
Like what you see?
Subscribe for more: