Resetting cultural norms is an important weapon in the move to a sustainable economy. It is partly a design challenge and partly a cultural myth-making challenge. The myth-making challenge is the province of marketeers, but must be founded on a genuine product.
Reagan’s opponent in the 1984 presidential election was former Vice President Walter Mondale. With questions about Reagan’s age, and a weak performance in the first presidential debate, it was questioned whether he was capable to be president for another term. In the second debate held in Kansas City, Missouri, October 21, Walter Mondale asked:
I want to raise an issue … in national security terms. You already are the oldest President in history. And some… say you were tired after your [debate]… President Kennedy had to go for days on end with very little sleep… Is there any doubt … you would be able to function in such circumstances?
Reagan rebounded confronted questions about his age in a brilliant piece of ‘resetting’:
I am not going to exploit, for political purposes, my opponent’s youth and inexperience… it was Seneca or… Cicero… that said, `If it was not for the elders correcting the mistakes of the young, there would be no state.’
To great Laughter and applause Ronald Reagan had reset the cultural norm of age as a liability, to age as wisdom. A very wise move indeed.
A brilliant piece of resetting something that we take for granted.
We’ll see more and more products and services that solve our sustainability problem in the future, and some of those will be genuinely game-changing. They’ll need cultural norms reset: We have the expertise to do it.
For more on this speak with us, or have a look at our capabilities
Also, as co-founders and supporters of the London Behavioural Economics Network, join the Meetup group and Facebook group for more details and events
Related Posts
August 13, 2023
Money (but not called that, and how it changes behaviour).
Advertising agencies make a lot of…
August 1, 2023
Reading ease is not as easy as all that – comprehension shows the way
It's easy to make text readable, right?…
July 20, 2023
The ‘Hollywood hello’ – and the importance of context when communicating
When communicating we all like to be as…
1 Comment
Add comment Cancel reply
This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.
Hey, Oliver Payne
Your writing on RESETTING CULTURAL NORMS: A SUSTAINABLE STRATEGY is really informative. I am really want to write on your website. i have a website http://hunterstrust.com/ but i want to write as guest in web. Please informe me if possible.