Ambiguity (cont.)

Ben's comments below point out some interesting observations in the organizational realm. Whether strategic ambiguity is ethical or not, corporations frequently use this method of communication. There are several reasons why a company would use this sort of tactic on the organizational level, but I also think it stems from basic human psychology.
It's easier for us as humans to give simplified labels to objects, people, and organizations (especially those which we are unfamiliar with) instead of extensive lists of pros and cons. For example, think of the company BP. Most likely the first thing that came to your mind was the massive oil spill last year that thrust the company into the public eye in a negative light. If we were asked what our opinion of the company is, we would most likely describe our feelings of the Gulf oil spill. We probably wouldn't say things like "BP handled the gulf spill poorly, but they tend to have good gas prices," or "I thought the CEO said some pretty horrible things, but I do like their logo." For the most part, we tend to give attention to one particular aspect of something or someone. There are instances where we focus on several different characteristics, but we try and simplify the world around us into meanings that we can easily construct and identify.
It is for this reason I feel that strategic ambiguity is so prevalent in political, organizational, and even personal  communication. Just try and imagine if there were no political parties in government. As nice as that idea may seem, it would require that all voters carefully examine the policies and character of each candidate. Parties allow us to give labels in one of the most blatant ways. "I'm not voting for a Republican/Democrat." That is why politicians must try and give themselves a new label by using such phrases as "pro-family" or "pro-jobs."
It's important to remember that as humans, we try our best to simplify our world. We're not unintelligent, we just don't want to complicate our lives with matters we find unimportant. This notion requires us to think about how we should construct messages as PR practitioners.