Policy Dinners

Researchers in Bangkok, Thailand just released a new study that found exposing children to Popeye the Sailor Man has a strong impact on their eating habits.

New scientific research found that children who watched Popeye shoveling spinach into his mouth before fighting his rival Bruto, doubled their vegetable intake. Watching episodes of the cartoon was just part of a larger experiment, conducted by researchers at Mahidol University.  Children also engaged in planting vegetable seeds, fruit and vegetable parties, and cooking with vegetables. Read

I recently met with a possible client, and as part of a larger communications strategy, I suggested his business consider hosting a small policy dinner with an elite group of writers and scholars. I was met with a strange reaction – laughing.  He understood op-eds, speeches, even conferences. But a dinner? How is that going to help advance our issue campaign?

White House Writers Group has been organizing policy dinners for years, but using a meal as a platform to influence opinion has a much longer history in the nation’s capital. Dinner parties in Washington have been the source of politics and politicking since the days of Thomas Jefferson. As Catherine Allgor, the author of Parlor Politics writes, “Historians have long recognized the political advantages of Jefferson’s dinners, calling them part of his statecraft.” Read