The Foreign Service Journal, April 2005

A s the incoming under secretary for public diplomacy takes up the helm of our fragmented public diplomacy apparatus to face the most hostile world opinion cli- mate in memory, he or she will no doubt hear about the “failed” Shared Values advertising campaign by Charlotte Beers. After reviewing the 2002 Beers ini- tiative, I am convinced that Shared Values’ most important lessons have been hidden. The fact is that the messages, which were researched and pre-test- ed with target audience members, actually worked when State was able to place them in foreign media. The enterprise avoided the chief ailments of today’s public diplomacy: poor use of research, insufficient planning and spotty evaluation. A Bit of History After the attacks upon America on Sept. 11, 2001, President Bush him- self asked: “Why do they hate us?” Under Secretary for Public Diplo- macy Charlotte Beers, a veteran Madison Avenue executive, turned to her disciplines in persuasive commu- nication to respond. Beers tasked the Intelligence and Research Bureau to find out why publics aged 18 to 35 in Muslim nations regarded the U.S. with hostil- ity. INR went beyond the opinion polls to find out how foreigners felt about American society, conducting some original research but also reviewing a broad swath of existing behavioral and commercial research. The studies offered new insights. For example, a Roper poll of 35 nations showed that Muslims felt their dear- est values — modesty, obedience, duty — were neglected in the U.S. Nearly all the research revealed that foreign Muslims sensed American hostility to them and their religion. However, the Roper study and others also showed that Muslims had little knowledge that values like faith, fami- ly and learning were also cherished by Western societies. On that basis, Beers articulated two objectives for a communication campaign: target a few key countries to establish a mindset that Americans and Muslims share many values and beliefs; and demonstrate that America is not at war with Islam. Secretary Powell endorsed those objectives. Beers’ strategy relied on American Muslims telling about their lives in the U.S., free from oppression and surrounded by strong families. The campaign was built around five mini- documentaries featuring a student, a teacher, a New York firefighter and Dr. Elias Zerhouni, director of the National Institutes of Health. Each first-person account demonstrated one or more of those underappreciat- ed values: family life, zeal for educa- tion and American respect for free- dom of religion. Produced in video, radio and print, the ads were to run in eight Muslim nations during Nov- ember 2002 — the holy month of Ramadan — under formal sponsor- ship by the nonprofit Council of American Muslims for Understand- ing. In addition to the $8.6 million in projected ad placements, embassies were to plan related activities in those countries and coordinate the launch of the “good will” campaign. The Muslims featured in the ads or other prominent Muslim-Americans would be available to travel to the target countries for speaking tours. Back- ground materials on Muslims in the U.S. were produced in print and Web formats. Washington promised multi- media assistance to embassies based on their judgment on how to magnify the ad campaign locally. Each embassy identified target audiences, such as mothers, religious leaders, media reporters and students, that would maximize a change in percep- tion. Launching the Campaign Neither State nor the predecessor U.S. Information Agency had exten- sive experience with ad campaigns, although USIA had conducted cam- paigns of persuasion. State’s previous ad campaigns had aimed at specific results: soliciting information on sus- pected terrorists or recruiting Foreign Service officers. Shared Values’ objective was much more ambitious: Incoming public diplomacy executives can draw rich lessons from Shared Values. Public Diplomacy: What Have We Learned? B Y J OE B. J OHNSON A P R I L 2 0 0 5 / F O R E I G N S E R V I C E J O U R N A L 13 S PEAKING O UT