I enjoyed the article in the Feb. 17, 2010, Marketplace section of the Wall Street Journal by Ilan Brat titled “The Emotional Quotient of Soup Shopping: Campbell’s Taps ‘Neuromarketing’ Techniques to Find Why Shelf Displays Left Some Customers Cold.”
This got me thinking about climate change legislation.
Unlike Campbell’s soup, climate change legislation has not been immortalized by Andy Warhol so it does not have that in its favor. Could legislators, however, take a cue from the Campbell’s playbook to figure out what prompts people to support climate change initiatives and finally legislation?
In its research, Campbell’s discovered that the image of the spoon on its label is unnecessary as it had little to do with emotional response. What is the “spoon” equivalent in current climate change legislation that could be dispensed with to make it more ‘palatable’?
Adding steam to the image, it was discovered, helped people become more emotionally engaged with the product. What, then, is the steam needed to warm up (excuse the pun) the climate change legislation? What is the untapped emotional quotient of climate change?
I’m going to think about it over a nice, hot, steamy updated bowl of soup!
What is it that you think makes the climate change language less palatable to the general public and/or what will make climate change legislation more popular with the public?

