Another great way of getting your message quoted is for you to quote someone or something that is opposing your or providing a contrast to your viewpoint.
“My opponent, our current governor, said ‘Elect me and I’ll create 1,000,000 new jobs.’ But what he didn’t tell us at the time is that he would create those jobs in China!”
That is an opposition quote. You are putting words into the mouth of someone else and then answering them. This sound bite element is often coupled with attacks, for obvious reasons.
At least once a month, I see some major celebrity who is going though an expensive divorce quoted this way:
“As Shakespeare once said, ‘the first thing we should do is kill all the lawyers.’”
It’s not original (and lawyers can make the case that the quote is taken out of context), but the quote is irresistible to most reporters.
Opposition quotes can often be complex and usually rely on some explicit or implicit attack; therefore they aren’t appropriate for most corporate executives.
But opposition quotes remain a favorite of reporters, so use them only if and when they are appropriate to your message.
