NEWS
The problem with economic burden framing in health
There are many ways you can frame health and illness in the media. The framing we use sends an important message to both people who make change, and those who may live with illness. In this blog post, Common Cause’s Kate May shares her experience of telling her story in the media as someone living with chronic illness.
NAILED IT! RING YOUR RELLOS
This video developed by the official YES Campaign during the Marriage Equality plebiscite in 2017 encouraged supporters to ring their relatives to motivate them to vote yes. It’s a great example of ‘show, don’t tell’.
NAILED IT! THE PALAU PLEDGE
Rather than simply tell visitors to take sustainable action while visiting Palau – or describe the penalties they might face if they don’t - the Pacific Island developed a pledge for visitors to sign when they arrive. To explain the pledge, they developed this in-flight video brimming with intrinsic values around connectedness, friendship and harmony.
Time to be bold
This is a speech delivered by Common Cause Australia’s co-director Mark Chenery at the Leadership 2025 conference in Canberra on 11-12 June 2025. Mark was asked to speak to how civil society can take the recent Australian election outcome and turn it into bold progressive change in the months and years ahead.
NAILED IT! ALL THAT WE SHARE
An oldie but a goodie from TV2 Denmark - a brilliant video that we use often to demonstrate that intrinsic values can be just as compelling as extrinsic ones!
Humans are kinder than you think - Lord of the Flies was wrong
At Common Cause, we’re fascinated by what motivates people — and what this means for social change. In this post, we explore pluralistic ignorance, a social phenomenon that reveals how we often misjudge others’ values and actions.
NAILED IT! ‘A NEW BEGINNING’
Welcome to Nailed It!, a regular blog series focussing on examples of excellence in values-based messaging. Each blog post will focus on one of the main categories of helpful values – Universalism, Benevolence and Self-Direction. We love this example from the UK.
Stop meeting people where they’re at. Take them to a better place.
Connecting within your audience is absolutely vital, but ‘meeting people where they are at’ is both misleading and dangerous communications advice.
nailed it! community stands up to an alcohol megastore
In 2016 Woolworths, the largest food and beverage retailer in Australia, proposed to build a Dan Murphy’s alcohol megastore in Darwin, near three dry Aboriginal communities. The community pushed back - and won.
How do we defeat the far right this election?
It’s the question progressives are all asking: how can we grab the opportunity presented by the 2025 Federal election to steer the public narrative - in the media, on the streets and online - in the direction of care and connectedness for people and nature?
Cognitive bias: how to work with (not against) human psychology
Whether you’re working to shift public attitudes, inspire action, or influence decision-making, logical arguments alone are rarely enough. That’s because people don’t process information in a purely rational way. Instead, our decision making is driven in large part by subconscious emotions, values and cognitive biases. In this post, we’d like to delve deeper into some of the key cognitive biases that influence how we think and act.
Case Study: How to talk to parents about underage alcohol supply
The “Keep Their Future Bright” campaign tackled the sensitive yet critical issue of parents supplying alcohol to underage children, with the goal of reducing underage drinking. Here’s how we approached this challenging communications problem, achieved success, and what lessons we can share with others in health promotion.
Webinar: Framing housing and Homelessness
Common Cause will be hosting a free webinar on framing homes and housing based on two in-depth message research projects we recently completed.
New Vaping Messaging Guide available
Our latest Vaping Message Guide developed in collaboration with Quit, offers a strategic approach to messaging that taps into the deep-seated beliefs and emotions that drive the ways Australians think and act on vaping.
Mythbusting pitfalls and how to avoid them
We recently reviewed the latest evidence from applied psychology and cognitive linguistics for any new research on mythbusting and its effects on beliefs and behaviours. Here’s what we found…
Let’s listen: referendum resources
With a referendum just around the corner, we'd like to share persuasive messages that build public support for First Nations self-determination and justice, now and beyond the referendum.
Case Study: animal Welfare in Aotearoa
We recently partnered with Animals Aotearoa to develop messaging for their Better Chicken Commitment campaign. The campaign has already secured commitments from major brands that is helping to transform the chicken industry in Aotearoa for the better.
KEYNOTE: INFLUENCING LEADERS
Common Cause Australia co-director Eleanor Glenn was recently invited to speak at a Health and Wellbeing Queensland conference about the best way of influencing leaders to create healthier food environments.
Managers are people too
As social change agents, many of us focus on building public support and action for a better world. But what about when we’re working directly with leaders and decision-makers? How can we gain their support and motivate them to take action?
Don’t freak out, but your doctor is irrational*
If you’ve been following the work of Common Cause for a while, you’ll be well aware that human beings are not completely rational. Instead, most of the time, we form beliefs and make decisions based on a range of subconscious cues and short-cuts. This includes our values.
But what about evidence-based professionals – people like scientists, judges and doctors?