““One $7 million advertising campaign ran this advertisement: “When you die, the IRS can bury your family in crippling tax bills. It can cost them everything.” The ad was later criticized by FactCheck.org, an independent watchdog run by the Annenberg Public Policy Center for presenting a “misleading picture of who is actually affected by the estate tax since the vast amount of families are not affected by the estate tax.” The media campaign was particularly fierce and misleading when it came to family farms and businesses. According to one ad: “The death tax is killing American businesses.... To pay the death tax, many are forced to sell.” It is striking that this campaign was so effective considering that it was based on such blatant distortions of the truth. Opponents of the estate tax repeal had written their own reports and op-eds explaining the limited application of the estate tax and the protections—real and potential—for family farms and businesses. These received little attention. To this, Luntz had a theory. As he explained in a New Yorker interview with Nicholas Lemann: “If you introduce a subject using language that will produce a strong opinion, no subsequent information will get people to change their minds. This is particularly the case when the competing claim is based on numbers — like in the estate tax where opponents of reform argued about lost revenue, high exemption amounts and the small percentage of the public likely to be subject to the tax. But discussing numbers is never a winning strategy.” Describing politicians who talk about numbers, Luntz added: “It’s like quicksand; the more you struggle the deeper you sink.””
