Research-based messaging for American values
Tell the truth. Tell it well.
We help leaders who share core American values speak with clarity, conviction, and confidence, using messages tested with thousands of real voters.
Our Mission
To help leaders who share core American values tell the truth well, with clarity, conviction, and confidence.
What We Do
Messages that move people, built on evidence.
The American Message Foundation equips leaders and advocates with emotionally resonant, research-based messages, written in everyday, values-based language and tested head-to-head against the opposition.
The great communicators did not recite policy. They spoke to who we are and what we owe one another.
What the Research Shows
Progressives do have an affirmative message.
Tested messages beat right-wing language on all 12 perennial issues, including some of the hardest. The difference is how they are written.
Emotionally evocative
People vote with their hearts and justify with their heads. Messages that make people feel something are the ones that stick.
Values-based
Leaders should tack to their values, not to the left or the center. Effective messages offer a choice between values systems.
Everyday language
No jargon and no white papers. Plain words that sound like a person talking to a neighbor.
Free Messaging Guide
How to Talk About Values
Empirically tested messaging on every major issue, ready to use. Plagiarize liberally.
Read the MemoMembers of the public are licensed to use the messages for any non-commercial purpose.
Message Discipline
Think jazz.
Traditional talking points make leaders sound scripted. Message discipline means playing from the same songbook while improvising in your own voice.
You can persuade people by lying well or by telling the truth well. We believe in democracy, science, and accountability, so we have truth on our side.
The OfferThe Offer
Choose your values. Say them out loud.
Progressive messages win when they present a clear choice between two value systems. Our tables give leaders the exact words.
"Neither left nor center. Tack to your values."
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Methodology
Tested, not guessed.
Over 2,000 voters rated progressive and right-wing messages across more than a dozen issues on a 0 to 100 scale. Progressive messages averaged 89 and outperformed right-wing language on every issue tested, by an average of 22 points. Full methodology to come.