Neurolinguistic programming looks at the effect certain words or phrases have on us. University of California professor George Lakoff teaches the art of “framing” in his Cognitive Science 101 course at Berkley (for a .pdf version of Lakoff’s book “Don’t Think of an Elephant”, click here).

In “Elephant” Lakoff shows how certain words attach to the psyche and become “frames” for all subsequent discussions on the subject. In politics think “Patriot Act” or “Tax Relief”. These laden words cannot be countered effectively - how can any politician object to “Tax Relief” or be against the “Patriot Act”?

This concept applies to names, as well.  London-based psychologist Richard Wiseman and his team surveyed 6,000 people to get their impressions of first names. Today’s “The Australian” includes highlights:

“People called James and Elizabeth are seen as the most successful. Jack and Lucy are the luckiest and Sophie and Ryan are the most attractive. But Lisa and Brian are most likely to fail, Helen and John are the unluckiest and Ann and George the least attractive.

“Professor Wiseman said: ‘Attractive female names tended to be soft-sounding and end with the ‘ee’ sound, whereas the sexiest males names are shorter and harder sounding.’”

Poor, unlucky George! Sounds like Brad and Angelina are onto something!

Public relations and advertising can use these insights to build better “sound bytes” and slogans. Use of key words and phrases will embed the concept in the mind of the listener - and make the phrase harder to counter.

What examples stick in your mind?