What's in the box
A headline in today's Washington Post reads, Bush Team Rethinks Its Plan for Recovery: New Approach Could Save Second Term. The article that follows details proposed Republican PR strategies designed to help the President's poll numbers rise during the year ahead, based on analysis of the failed White House marketing campaigns tried in the past.
It occurs to me that there's something horribly wrong with this news, specifically the continued fascination with political packaging and presentation in place of a focus on policy and results. I'm sick to death of examinations of the effectiveness of the Republican advertising approach, and discussions which essentially equate political "success" with the ability to influence Zogby approval ratings.
As a veteran Ad man myself, I'm well aware that, with colorful wrapping, a catchy commercial, clever media buys, and manipulative in-store positioning, the American people can be convinced to purchase shit in a box. But that doesn't change the fact that what's in the box is still shit, no matter how wonderful or brilliant or effective the window dressing that accompanies it. Can anyone say "Pet Rock"?
And unlike a harmless, needless, mediocre product that a gullible public is fooled into purchasing, the misguided and sometimes dangerous policies of our elected officials have real consequences. Maybe it's just me, but I find the endless examination of marketing "game plans", "the horse race", "PR strategies", and "political positioning" to be an insidious obfuscation of what should be our primary focus - the substance behind the stylish rhetoric.
I don't want to read that Republicans (or Democrats, for that matter) are busying themselves with ideas on how to build a better commercial campaign. What we should expect and demand of our elected officials is that they utilize their energies to address, enhance, revise, and improve the policies themselves. If our elected "leaders" are concentrating only on how to better market their demonstrably inferior product, instead of working on ways to improve that product, then this is something to be condemned by the press, not blithely reported as a natural aspect of the political "process".
Shouldn't we be concerned that Mr. Bush do something more than just look Presidential? Shouldn't we be offended that so much of the MSM's political analysis directed at the Commander in Chief (or any politician, for that matter) seems content to focus not on his actual performance, but instead on how well he's maintaining the appearance of performance? When a Page 1 story in the Washington Post treats GOP advertising strategies as actual news, the paper is complicit in this Administration's campaign of distraction, helping to dumb down the populace and convince us that the style is just as important as the substance.
We already know how ruthlessly efficient the Republican marketing machine has been, and continues to be. Evidence that its effectiveness is due in large part to misrepresentation of facts, playing on primal fears, slander, and bald-faced fibbing, is well publicized and widespread. So treating an upcoming shift in the tone of its advertising with some sort of newsworthy legitimacy, without criticizing the failures of the product being advertised, is a tremendous disservice to an increasingly attention deficient citizenry.
Enough already. If the MSM must report on the nuances of political sales campaigns, then let these items be given the lack of prominence they deserve. I don't care any more about how ingeniously the product is going to be packaged and marketed. What's important is that shit that's still in the box itself.
It occurs to me that there's something horribly wrong with this news, specifically the continued fascination with political packaging and presentation in place of a focus on policy and results. I'm sick to death of examinations of the effectiveness of the Republican advertising approach, and discussions which essentially equate political "success" with the ability to influence Zogby approval ratings.
As a veteran Ad man myself, I'm well aware that, with colorful wrapping, a catchy commercial, clever media buys, and manipulative in-store positioning, the American people can be convinced to purchase shit in a box. But that doesn't change the fact that what's in the box is still shit, no matter how wonderful or brilliant or effective the window dressing that accompanies it. Can anyone say "Pet Rock"?
And unlike a harmless, needless, mediocre product that a gullible public is fooled into purchasing, the misguided and sometimes dangerous policies of our elected officials have real consequences. Maybe it's just me, but I find the endless examination of marketing "game plans", "the horse race", "PR strategies", and "political positioning" to be an insidious obfuscation of what should be our primary focus - the substance behind the stylish rhetoric.
I don't want to read that Republicans (or Democrats, for that matter) are busying themselves with ideas on how to build a better commercial campaign. What we should expect and demand of our elected officials is that they utilize their energies to address, enhance, revise, and improve the policies themselves. If our elected "leaders" are concentrating only on how to better market their demonstrably inferior product, instead of working on ways to improve that product, then this is something to be condemned by the press, not blithely reported as a natural aspect of the political "process".
Shouldn't we be concerned that Mr. Bush do something more than just look Presidential? Shouldn't we be offended that so much of the MSM's political analysis directed at the Commander in Chief (or any politician, for that matter) seems content to focus not on his actual performance, but instead on how well he's maintaining the appearance of performance? When a Page 1 story in the Washington Post treats GOP advertising strategies as actual news, the paper is complicit in this Administration's campaign of distraction, helping to dumb down the populace and convince us that the style is just as important as the substance.
We already know how ruthlessly efficient the Republican marketing machine has been, and continues to be. Evidence that its effectiveness is due in large part to misrepresentation of facts, playing on primal fears, slander, and bald-faced fibbing, is well publicized and widespread. So treating an upcoming shift in the tone of its advertising with some sort of newsworthy legitimacy, without criticizing the failures of the product being advertised, is a tremendous disservice to an increasingly attention deficient citizenry.
Enough already. If the MSM must report on the nuances of political sales campaigns, then let these items be given the lack of prominence they deserve. I don't care any more about how ingeniously the product is going to be packaged and marketed. What's important is that shit that's still in the box itself.
posted by Bob P @ 11:30 AM
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