What Americans Really Want...Really

July 27, 2009
Luntz (Words That Work
) draws on personal experiences and current focus group research to aggregate our understanding of attitudes about everyday life, work, consumption, corporations, religious institutions, government, family relationships and community membership. Ostensibly for a general readership, the real audience for Luntz's work are groups who benefit from knowing what drives choices in contemporary American culture. Market researchers, pollsters, lobbyists and public relations officials are offered insights into such topics as what college students care about, what people expect from their employers and government, and what religious beliefs count in “selling” God to congregants. Using anecdotal stories about interviewing Playboy bunnies and “secret shopping” as well as boxed summaries about “Words that Work,” Luntz is shaping opinion and marketing campaigns rather than offering a synthetic vision of the American population. The questions asked offer respondents a limited perspective from which to construct their answers, resulting in hopes, dreams and fears that reflect the worldview of Luntz's corporate and political clients more than the so-called “average American” whose words he purports to present.