Some public policy issues don’t get their day in the public debate because they’re just too complex and rhetorically cumbersome. Issues like repealing or reforming old labor relics like Project Labor Agreements (PLA’s) are especially tough. Our side has typically overwhelmed the audience with dump trucks of data. The human, personal reason for eliminating or replacing them is rarely part of the argument the good guys make.
When Associated Builders and Contractors engaged our team to brand and execute a strategy to fuel legislative momentum for PLA reforms, we steered the messaging to a somewhat more interesting argument toolbox – wildlife! In billboards, radio ads and an online animated short we applied the language of PETA and The Sierra Club to make our case for our own endangered species – non-union construction workers!
While The Endangered Jobs Protection Action still remains a step or two away from the governor’s signature, the issue has now been successfully recast and positioned. Traction at last. The intended audience – policy makers and the media are beginning to grasp the curious problem of PLA’s.