PROPAGANDA / A CRAFT BIBLE · CHAPTER 03
Chapter 03 / 16
The Seven Devices
In 1937 the Institute for Propaganda Analysis named seven plain tricks that still carry most short messages.
Name-calling, glittering generalities, transfer, testimonial, plain folks, card stacking, and bandwagon turn a claim into a feeling without an argument.
Why it works
The seven devices fasten a feeling to a claim without an argument
The Institute for Propaganda Analysis, founded in 1937, taught readers to spot seven devices. The same list tells a maker how to build a short message. Each device skips the argument and moves a feeling straight onto the target, or off it.
Two devices work by naming. Name-calling ties a bad word to the target so the audience rejects it without examining it. Glittering generalities tie a good word, like freedom or family, to your side so the audience approves it without examining it. The words carry the load and the claim rides underneath.
The rest work by association and pressure. Transfer borrows the authority of a symbol the audience respects, like a flag or a cross, and lets it fall on your cause. Testimonial puts a liked or trusted person behind the claim. Plain folks makes the speaker one of the ordinary audience. Card stacking shows only the facts that help and hides the rest. Bandwagon tells the audience that everyone is already joining, so they should too.
When to use it
Reach for a device when the message is short
- You have a poster, a headline, a chant, or a short post and no room to argue. Pick one device, not several.
- You want the audience to reject a target on sight. Use name-calling with a word they already hate.
- You want approval without scrutiny. Use a glittering generality the audience already loves.
- You want to sound like one of the audience, not an outsider selling something. Use plain folks.
How to do it
Build with one device at a time
- Name-calling: choose the worst word the audience already applies to people they reject, and attach it to your target by repetition. Keep it short and repeatable.
- Glittering generalities: choose a word the audience treats as good beyond question, and bind it to your side so opposing you means opposing the word.
- Transfer: place a symbol the audience already respects next to your cause so the respect moves across. Do not explain the link; let the placement do it.
- Testimonial: put a person the audience trusts behind the claim, and match the person to the audience rather than to your own taste.
- Plain folks: strip the speaker’s polish. Use the audience’s clothes, food, speech, and worries so the message sounds like one of their own.
- Card stacking: gather every fact that helps, drop every fact that hurts, and present the result as the whole story. Make sure a quick reader cannot see what is missing.
- Bandwagon: show numbers, crowds, or momentum so joining feels safe and staying out feels lonely.
What it captures
What the devices capture
Each device captures a feeling the audience already has and points it at your target. Name-calling and glittering generalities capture ready-made likes and hates. Transfer and testimonial capture trust the audience already gives to a symbol or a person. Plain folks captures the wish to be spoken to as an equal. Card stacking captures the reader who cannot check. Bandwagon captures the fear of being left out.
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