Barack Obama, Marketing Mastermind

I must give it to the Democrats, they've created a pretty good campaign for their leader. I'm not going to try to masquerade as someone that has a lot of political experience. Actually, I can only call it as I see it and I don't claim to know everything that is humanly possible about politics. There. That is my disclaimer. I am but a humble marketing major, surrounded by Obama signs everywhere I go, virtually eliminating even the IDEA that there was another candidate involved. I must say, Obama. Good job.

The first thing I want to pull out is what I feel to be the theme of the campaign in general. I recently overheard him saying something to the tune of "together, we will...etc." so on and so forth. I immediately latched onto this and thought that maybe the "togetherness" was a theme for the campaign. Much like clubs and organizations create unity by working towards a common goal, the theme of the campaign was to work together, to create an exclusive club of Democrats. It is this "togetherness" and feeling of "belonging" that I think is one of the drivers behind the Obama campaign.

One of the things that Obama seems to do well with is the race card. Because Obama is part black, he is able to become molded into an image of a savior for the race. He has the face of a large number of Americans these days and can appeal to them because he seemingly lived their life--the life of an American minority. I definitely see this each day with the buttons people wear bearing his face. He is painted to to be the hero of American minorities everywhere, and I feel that this creates the aforementioned sense of unity.

I think another thing Obama does well is take the socioeconomic class division and use it to his advantage. His idea of spreading the wealth has gone so well, despite the combative Republican "Joe the Plumber" propaganda. It appeals to people with lower income and in this case, Obama becomes the Robin Hood figure, taking from the rich and giving to the poor. Rather than racial unity, it becomes class unity. Although I am personally from a family that is somewhere in the middle class, I feel a few little twinges of animosity when I watch the rich and famous on television, squandering money and making frivolous impulse purchases. I feel as though this feeling can only be amplified for those of lower classes, giving Obama another point and others to stand behind him.

A third group that Obama has been said to appeal to is the younger generation. I'm not about to get into a rant about my personal experience with this, but I will say that for some (not all), it is viewed as "trendy" to be political and it is a fad to staunchly defend a candidate. It is some new kind of cool to be a "political bad ass." Obama has taken advantage of this, while the McCain maverick ads...not so much. Just as those influenced by race and economic status have been able to connect with Obama, so has the younger generation of voters. They see Obama as someone younger and fresher than the current president, and certainly younger than the aging McCain. I think that the campaign is doing a good job getting the young people out there to see the Obama campaign as part a club or a fellowship, taking advantage of the need of many young people to just "belong." Friends invite friends and introduce them to it, and new Democrats are born.

I don't just feel that the Obama's marketing strategies are only well geared towards specific audiences, but I feel like the content is really something that does a good job of reaching all people as well. One of the things I think that the Obama campaign has really done a good job with is translating the image of the seemingly unpopular president Bush onto his fellow Republican, candidate John McCain. Through careful marketing techniques and the proper utilization of commercials, the Obama campaign was able to make John McCain and George Bush virtually indistinguishable. Because of this, people assume that John McCain's policies are verbatim, the policies of Bush. This is something that puts McCain at the losing end of the spectrum, especially for those with whom Bush has lost favor. Despite claiming in debate that he is not George Bush and that Obama should have run 4 years ago, this seems to have little effect among those that were led to believe that John McCain would be George Bush, part deux.

The last thing I want to get into is timing, because I think that can be linked to the aforementioned topic. Barack Obama comes at a time when the American people seem to be weary and upset with the way that things are going. The word "change" is very key to his campaign and I think is a major part of what makes it so successful. He has done a remarkable job with his advertising and experimenting with the psychological state of the American people. It is my current belief that based on these beliefs alone, it seems inevitable that his win would be secured.

As an end note: Let's hope that what he is advertising is actually what he plans on delivering and that he will be able to give the American people what they so desire, because I am getting the feeling that based on advertising alone he's going to be what we get for the next 4 years.

Unfortunately, this candidate has been marketed a little too much. Political commercials from both sides are full of fallacies and implied falsehoods, and do everything short of blatantly lying (sit through one with me from either side, and I can poke holes in it). People who only rely on their gut feelings and only use political speeches and commercials as their sources of knowledge will hugely vote for Obama. Obama has more money, a more radical message, and uses all the tactics you mentioned to his full advantage. Yes, I am saying that Obama has illegitimate support, but as for the validity of his positions, that's another post. The problem with this election is that Obama's tactics have diverted attention from the issues, like abortion, gun control, the Iraq war, Iran, social security, government debt, OUR debt, renewable energy, energy that is profitable but pollutes, I could go on and bore you to death.

Essentially, Obama picks and chooses a few select issues that he can easily dominate in, and doesn't focus on any others in his commercials and speeches. The same goes for McCain. Both try to show their strong suit all of the time, and try to smooth talk their way out of difficult questions during the debates (I personally find Obama much more guilty of this). The problem with this is that Obama has a lot more money than McCain, and is overpowering him with a ton of ads with a "feel good" message. I find MANY things wrong with Obama's stances. However, to his supporters, it's as if none of these other issues existed. By dominating commercials, Obama narrows the issues and the minds of his supporters, so that they don't question what he says and blindly take his words to heart. Add in that he's a minority who achieved the American dream with 'hard work?' He has this election in the bag, because Americans have become too unintelligent and lazy to think through these things for themselves. Why think about it when Obama's marketing campaign can do it for you?