What other advice would you offer?

I think the organization has done a good job with defining and hammering away at the issue. The next question they have to ask is, how do we execute this? Do we have rallies? Do we have marches on Washington? The strategy is sound, but you can't just have strategy, because how are you going to get the ideas in the mind? Bland statements like "We're going to educate somebody" don't work.

The most important thing is to focus on one or two big things, as opposed to a lot of little things. And I'll tell you something else: The specific almost always works better than the general does.

For example, let's say you're working on women and women's rights. We can have a big organization and a big pamphlet and now we're going to go out and educate American citizens on being equal and all these wonderful things. But look what happened when one smart public relations-oriented woman struck a blow -- a narrow one -- against [the all-male] Augusta [National Golf Club, which hosts the Masters]. That generated more publicity and more action than a broad general program. It's amazing. Because of its high visibility, and because many prominent CEOs are members of Augusta, a lot of people are in the hot spot about this issue. [Chuckles.]

Most successful programs of this sort come up with some simple, tangible idea on the execution.

In the same sense, I think the pro-choice people could dramatize their case better by taking case histories of individuals who didn't have abortions, which caused intense misery and suffering for themselves, their families and their offspring in their lifetime.

How effective are the NARAL billboard ads? One features a gearshift, the other hot- and cold-water spouts -- both with the words "Imagine a country without choice."

In the first place, I don't see any role for advertising here; I see a role for P.R. Advertising has no credibility. Just because you say something in an ad doesn't mean it's so. Merrill Lynch gets in trouble and runs a 12-page ad in the New York Times saying, "Hey, we're wonderful," but do you believe it? Do people believe the ads, or do they believe the news stories? They believe the news stories. In this case, I would not focus on ads at all. I'd focus all the attention on P.R. and horror stories. Believe me, there are a lot of lives not worth living.

What advice would you offer the pro-life groups?

I wouldn't work on the other side of the issue because I don't believe in it. As a professional communicator, you can't get excited about communicating issues you don't believe in. I mean, if Adolf Hitler asked me to help him out with the Nazi party, then I'd have to say, "No thanks, Adolf, do it yourself."

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