Protest Strategy: Managing the Optics
Focus on how this plays to the American audience.
The American public will judge who is right and wrong based almost exclusively on the images they see. People thought the L.A. protests were violent because those are the images that get used and shared. We have to be super strategic about stage-managing the optics, both on the ground and in our messaging. #NOKINGS
Thank you for reading Reframing America! I need your help to continue this critical mission. The best thing you can do is to forward this email to everyone you know who cares about improving how we communicate with the American people.
Optics are Everything
In many posts, I have spoken about our need to reach those who are not paying attention, those who are inadvertently exposed to news, as opposed to those who seek out news. We must reach these people to build public support for our mission to oppose Trump’s abuse of power and police state tactics.
We have to control the images and (slightly less importantly) the headlines that come out of the protests, because that is all they will see. This means two things: managing what happens on the ground to limit what images are created, and managing how we talk about the protests and how we create and share content about it.
A recent Washington Post poll shows the differences in perception. We are winning those who are tuned in to the news and losing those who are not. Also, while the impressions vary wildly by party, everyone vastly overestimates the degree to which the protests were violent, most likely because images of burning cars and teargas smoke far outnumbered images of peaceful demonstration.
What optics do we want?
First, we have to know which optics serve our goals. Many people think of past protests, particularly the pivotal civil rights protest march on the Edmund Pettus bridge, in which images of innocent marchers being brutalized by police influenced shifts in public opinion. Back then, images like that were shocking and new. Also, those protesters wore suits and dresses and included children.
Today, images of protestors being attacked, while not helpful to the police, do not necessarily read the way we want them to read. They are far, far more subject to partisan interpretation and justification. The people we’re dealing with don’t look closely enough to determine who “provoked” whom.
Trump broke this. He owns it.
Trump has been looking for an excuse to declare Martial law since he took office. Don’t give him one. We need to make it absolutely clear that Trump is creating the chaos. He is provoking confrontation by violating the civil liberties of people who live in our communities and by deploying the military on American soil to harass peaceful protesters and suppress opposition to his many illegal, unconstitutional and corrupt acts.
Our opponents are trying to convince people that our cities are being invaded by foreign terrorists leading some kind of insurrection. As usual, they are trying to evoke fear to get people to abandon their civil liberties in favor of top-down control and the illusion of safety.
Do not get into any debates about “law and order” or attempt to rebut claims about illegal behavior by either protesters or immigrants. Creating or sharing any content that uses those terms or repeats those claims just exposes more persuadable people to them. Instead of trying to debunk their claims, bypass them and go directly to saying what you know to be true.
Project Safety and Innocence
Our strategic goal should be to look so completely peaceful and harmless that calling out the National Guard look like the wildest kind of overreach, like calling them out to attack a family picnic. The fact of our protests being peaceful should be unassailable.
What can we do to manage the optics to get the results that we want? Actor and activist Peter Coyote taught a class in the “theater of protest” at Harvard. He has many excellent recommendations, several of which I include here.
1. ZERO images of vandalism and violence.
If there is ONE image of a protester breaking a window, THAT is the picture that will be used. This is not an outlet for our frustration and rage. We need to display self-discipline.
Some groups have advocated that, if you see someone engaging in vandalism or violence, you should sit down and point at them to make sure everyone knows who is responsible. Coyote recommends appointing monitors, having them wear yellow vests and blow a whistle so everyone knows when to sit down.
2. Dress like a normal law-abiding citizen.
Appear as innocent as you are capable of appearing! If you come dressed for battle, you will look like you came for battle. Coyote says “dress like you are going to church.” We need images to show stark contrast between us and the police or National Guard. Make it look ridiculous that they are even there.
You can BRING your protective gear just in case, but our best strategy is to avoid ever getting to the point where you actually need it. If there is teargas being thrown, we have already lost control of the optics.
3. Demonstrate in the sunlight. Go home well before dark.
Coyote says, “In the dark, you can’t tell the cops from the killers.” The entire situation looks completely different in the bright sunlight versus the dark. The sunlight reveals the contrast and puts the lie to their claims.
4. ZERO confrontation with police or anyone in military garb.
Do not engage. Try your best to act like they are not even there. Go about your protest as a law-abiding citizen. In a still image or video clip, throwing a teargas canister back at the police just looks like throwing a smoking projectile at the police.
Also - and this is important:
Do not let police force confrontation by boxing you in!
It is a common tactic to have a curfew set for a certain time, and for police to encircle protesters an hour in advance and not allow them to leave, so that when the curfew arrives, they will be breaking the law, justifying their detainment or arrest. They will use the same “boxing in” tactic to arrest people for being in any location where they are not supposed to be.
I witnessed this and other aggressive tactics personally at the “Battle of Seattle.” In 1999, friends brought me to Seattle for the massive protests of the World Trade Association negotiations. Police used every trick in the book, but the protests were ultimately successful, blocking a new round of trade agreements!
5. Signs and Slogans
Many have asked me about protest signs and slogans and I don’t have any “magic bullet” advice on that, except to say, remember your audience. We love to signal to each other with snarky digs and messages that you have to be in on the joke to understand. These do not help.
The viewers will be wondering to themselves what you believe in and why you are there. Express yourself in simple and clear value statements and combinations thereof:
Freedom of Speech for Everyone.
This is America. No Dictators, No Kings.
No Secret Police.
No Military Occupation.
I believe in the Constitution.
It’s (supposed to be) a Free Country.
Immigrants are Essential.
America Needs Immigrants.
Don’t Abduct My Neighbors.
Don’t Abduct My Mom.
Everybody Gets a Fair Hearing! (The Constitution Says So!)
Stop the Budget Bill.
(Stop the Budget Bill) No Cuts to Health Care.
Save Medicaid! I can’t afford a nursing home!
(Stop the Budget Bill) Make the Rich Pay Their Fair Share.
(Stop the Budget Bill) Kids Deserve Food.
(Stop the Budget Bill) Save Our Small Farms.
(Stop the Budget Bill) Save Rural Hospitals.
Bombing Civilians is NOT OK.
Starving Civilians is a War Crime.
(To National Guard and Marines) This is Bullshit Duty!
Stop the Corruption! Our Government is Not For Sale!
6. American flags only.
I don’t have to explain this to you. We are the champions of the constitution and the people in this situation. We should be proud of that.
Show the World the Truth
In your documenting the protests and creating and sharing social media, your mission is to show the American people what really happened on the ground: decent American citizens just like them peacefully demonstrating for freedom, Constitutional rights, and civil liberties, and against abuse of power by Trump and ICE, cuts to essential public services, and giveaways to the already obscenely rich.
Do not post, like or share any content that includes images of smoke, fire, vandalism or confrontation, regardless of what the headline or content says.
Take and share enough images of peaceful scenes to outnumber images of confrontation.
The truth is that we are American citizens, standing up for our own FREEDOM OF SPEECH and the Constitutional rights of law-abiding, tax-paying, long-term residents some of whom were brought here as children. These people are an essential part of our society. They are our friends and neighbors, local business owners and workers. They are just like our parents and grandparents: people who do whatever it takes to take care of their families.
Every upstanding citizen ought to be protesting the use of SECRET POLICE: masked, unidentified, heavily-armed men who ABDUCT people without warrants or a fair hearing, IMPRISON them in basements without beds, food, water or contact with the outside world, and EXILE people to foreign lands where they have no rights.
Every American ought to be protesting this administration’s rampant CORRUPTION, total disregard for the law, and gross ABUSE OF POWER.
Thank you so much for reading this. I hope it is of use to you in your work and activism!
In solidarity, always,
My work is completely financed by subscribers like you! All content is free, but many people choose to upgrade to a paying subscription to help support this work!
USE THIS LINK to upgrade from the app!
Contact me at antonia@antoniascatton.com or (202) 922-6647
Great post, but the mainstream news orgs should be the ones reading this too! MSNBC showing for 4 days one Waymo taxi burning in LA wasn’t factual reporting.
I created this interactive infographic based on your blog. Keep up the great work. We need it.
https://thedemlabs.org/2025/06/13/protest-strategy-manage-the-optics/