The message that matters most to the public—whether that message comes via one voice or a chorus—is the answer to what the public cares about most: “What are you doing for US?”

If you are helping the public to live longer, earn more or spend less, the public will love you. But if your top message is that you want “fairness” for a company or country, why should 95% of people give a damn? How many of us reading this care whether a CEO sounds passionate about politics, jobs or even national defense?

The key strategic PR question may be “how can we get the public to care about what we want?” The answer may be to tie our cause to what the public already wants, health and money.

My favorite good cause that makes PR successful is health research. Cancer kills but money can kill many kinds of cancer. At Columbia University, Johns Hopkins and Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, allstar doctors keep looking and finding. If your CEO does a press briefing with Sloan Kettering hematologists Dr. Michael Mauro and Dr. Prioty Islam announcing a research thrust to protect our blood cells against cancer, will the public favor Washington action that may make your company more profitable and your research more successful?

It’s not a selfish question that the public has: “What good news do you have for ME and for US?” That can power your CEO’s success in announcing a new public protection narrative. The more you honestly promise that people care about, the more they will honestly care that Washington and all America should do what you hope for.

Consistently successful executive communications to the public: “What you want is what we want for you.”