#69 Breaking a Wave

#69 Breaking a Wave

From Winning Edge by Commonwealth Partners

February 18, 2026 · 4 min

About this episode

The episode discusses innovative solutions to challenges in campaigns, drawing parallels to engineering breakthroughs in wave management.

In 1950, two French engineers faced a problem they couldn’t solve the old way. They didn’t have the resources to build bigger seawalls, so instead of trying to stop the wave, they asked how to break it apart. The result was the tetrapod, a simple design that disperses force from any direction. It doesn’t fight the wave head-on. It absorbs and breaks it. Campaigns face storms, too. Negative adsOutside moneySagging turnoutTough interviewsA fight for voter attentionWhen pressure hits, many candi...

Topics covered

  • engineering
  • campaign strategy
  • voter engagement
  • negative advertising
  • political pressure

Keywords

  • tetrapod
  • seawalls
  • campaigns
  • voter attention
  • negative ads

Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: Commonwealth Partners

Places: France

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