The use of a slogan towards a goal
An operator (a person or entity) uses a slogan to direct someone else’s attention to their goal. A policymaker (operator) says a slogan (tool) for the passage of legislation (goal).
An organization can use that same phrase to their end, namely self-perpetuation. If there are competing goals internally, self-perpetuation overrides given the requirements of stakeholders.
A slogan as a tool
A craftsman shapes a tool towards a goal. For example, a craftsman shapes a hammer towards a goal of hammering a nail. A hammer has a handle connected to a metal head for that purpose.
Slogans can be thought of as tools.
Activists create and use a slogan so that it fulfills a goal. For example, environmental activists use “Save the Planet” to further efforts against climate change.
But if an organization uses that same phrase to meet its goal, there is confusion. If the goal of an organization is self-perpetuation, then the phrase does not have the same power it did as it for activists.
For clarity, it is easier to think of them as different slogans entirely.
- [“Save the Planet” for saving the planet]; and
- [“Save the Planet” for the self-perpetuation of an organization]
Because we just hear or see the phrase “Save the Planet,” we can easily assume these are the same slogans and assume that the activist and the organization have the same goals.
Power of a slogan
The confusion between a phrase (“Save the Planet”) used for different goals weakens the power of the activist’s slogan.
Power of a slogan seems to be the alignment between the operators, the words of the slogan itself, and the use of the slogan towards the goal specified in the slogan. The more outside operators use phrases of a slogan for their own, different goals, they create more confusion and weaken the power of the original slogan; because people mistake one use of the phrase in a slogan for another’s use of that phrase. We have a shared language and no restriction on who can use a phrase or not.
An example of the power of a slogan is when President Lyndon Baines Johnson said “We Shall Overcome” in an address to a joint session of Congress on March 15 1965 after the attack of state troopers on a massive protest march led by John Lewis in Selma, Alabama.
Here, President Johnson (operator) said “We Shall Overcome” (tool) when pressing for the goal of the activists: a protection of voting rights for all Americans.
That he said “We Shall Overcome”:
- as an government official;
- in spite of his previous lukewarm support for the activist’s goals;
- And now as an advocate in line with their goals
lent the slogan power.
Awareness
But doesn’t the use of “Save the Planet” lead to greater awareness in general?
If awareness itself is the goal, okay.
But the power of a slogan is to tie its use with a goal in the world. Awareness itself may be a detriment to the initial goal, because awareness will be substituted for or used as an evidence of action when there is none. “Save the Planet” has been used since the 1970s, but there has not been substantial action to avert climate change.