A message that reads as innocuous to a general audience and as pointed to an intended one, giving the speaker deniability.
The deniability is the point: the innocuous reading is genuinely available, so the speaker can disclaim the pointed one. This makes the phenomenon real and disputes about specific instances unresolvable.
In practice
- A manifesto phrase reads as ordinary policy to most listeners and as a specific promise to a particular audience, and both readings are honestly available.
- A job advert's "culture fit" wording carries one meaning in the HR file and another in the hiring manager's head.
- Further reading
- Wikipedia
- Subject
- Communication & Media
- Essay
- Theories of what stands between an event and its audience