Focus groups and language

My dad sent me a clipping from the Bergen Record (a NJ newspaper) that shows focus groups in action. The writer, Peter Grad, is writing about semantics and Social Security:

[W]e learned that the White House is banning the use of the term "privatization"--the key principle behind its push to overhaul Social Security--because focus groups distrust the word in the wake of Enron and other corporate scandals. Instead, the administration is encouraging the use of the phrase "personal accounts," a friendlier, warmer and fuzzier term.

A number of news stories have posited the same rationale behind the push for Social Security "reform" rather than "privatization."