"So often corporate America, business America, are the worst communicators, because all they understand are facts, and they cannot tell a story. They know how to explain their quarterly results, but they don't know how to explain what they mean"
About this Quote
Corporate America can recite numbers like scripture, Frank Luntz suggests, but it can’t preach. That’s not a neutral observation coming from him; it’s a memo from the high priest of political messaging. Luntz built a career arguing that the battle isn’t over facts but over frames, and here he’s scolding business leaders for treating communication as accounting: precise, verifiable, emotionally inert.
The intent is twofold. On the surface, it’s a critique of earnings-call monotone: revenue up, margins down, next question. Underneath, it’s an argument about power. “Facts” aren’t presented as truth so much as raw material that needs shaping. When Luntz says companies “cannot tell a story,” he’s pointing at a vacuum that gets filled by someone else: activists, politicians, influencers, regulators, workers on TikTok. If a corporation won’t explain what its quarterly results mean, the public will infer meaning anyway, often in the least flattering way: greed, fragility, exploitation, panic.
The subtext flatters the audience he’s chastising: you’re not villains, you’re just bad narrators. That’s classic Luntz - critique as sales pitch. He’s also quietly redefining “meaning” as a communications deliverable, not a philosophical one. “What they mean” isn’t about truth in the abstract; it’s about legitimacy, purpose, and reassurance in an era when spreadsheets don’t buy trust.
Context matters: post-2008 cynicism, stakeholder capitalism rhetoric, and culture-war scrutiny all made “just the numbers” an inadequate public language. Luntz is warning that if corporations keep speaking like CFOs, they’ll be governed like suspects.
The intent is twofold. On the surface, it’s a critique of earnings-call monotone: revenue up, margins down, next question. Underneath, it’s an argument about power. “Facts” aren’t presented as truth so much as raw material that needs shaping. When Luntz says companies “cannot tell a story,” he’s pointing at a vacuum that gets filled by someone else: activists, politicians, influencers, regulators, workers on TikTok. If a corporation won’t explain what its quarterly results mean, the public will infer meaning anyway, often in the least flattering way: greed, fragility, exploitation, panic.
The subtext flatters the audience he’s chastising: you’re not villains, you’re just bad narrators. That’s classic Luntz - critique as sales pitch. He’s also quietly redefining “meaning” as a communications deliverable, not a philosophical one. “What they mean” isn’t about truth in the abstract; it’s about legitimacy, purpose, and reassurance in an era when spreadsheets don’t buy trust.
Context matters: post-2008 cynicism, stakeholder capitalism rhetoric, and culture-war scrutiny all made “just the numbers” an inadequate public language. Luntz is warning that if corporations keep speaking like CFOs, they’ll be governed like suspects.
Quote Details
| Topic | Marketing |
|---|---|
| Source | Help us find the source |
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