The Brand o’bland and how it censored!

Today’s funny tidbit off The Guardian — we had talked here endlessly about the target marketing used by the non-Hillary Clinton camp.  Now there is a stunning article you can read some more about it.

Betcha didn’t know this!

You’ll REALLY want to read this piece, to grasp the scope of it all…..

“Obama’s media campaign - branding our conciousness”

“…Obama is, of course, an unprecedented figure in American politics for a number of reasons. Not least, because he is the first presidential candidate to have been promoted in the same way as a trans-media, upmarket consumer brand. The people behind Obama’s corporate identity have crafted a meticulous visual strategy that has been seamlessly deployed across an enormous diversity of platforms - from lapel pins to social networking websites, billboards to podcasts, where Obama’s publicity has maintained an unrivalled aesthetic cohesion. It’s a feat any creative director would be proud of.

There are stories of supporters at rallies having their lovingly handmade “Yes we CAN” signs exchanged by campaign staffers for officially branded materials. Evidently, Obama’s marketing team believes that visual consistency matters. They’re not wrong. Greater consistency means greater collective impact. That’s how brands function - by establishing themselves as culturally ubiquitous, a normal and inevitable part of everyday life. That’s how Obama wants to appear - and what his branding is doing for him. The colour scheme is a well-balanced if predictable red white and blue, the logo an innocuously abstract roundel (the sun rising over a ploughed field? or are those just stripes?)…”

I’ve kept my eye on that, because just like the rat behind it all, before I was a therapist, guess what my career was?  Graphic design, for the exact same (now going sadly defunct) industry the rat worked for!

Newspapers!

So, I started to track what was being done from that angle a long, long time ago.  Particularly annoying were the subliminals.  The logo even had the audacity to insert itself into the old “I heart NY” slogan.  Just insert the ball o’ bland for the heart, can you believe it?

You see, in America you can sell just about anything if it’s packaged correctly, can’t you?

You know what was really loathsome?  NQ had the report on it.  He had the audacity to trademark words like hope and change.  And also “——- for President, Incorporated”

Let’s just hope the bogus faux seal was the capper…

Can you imagine taking all those little handmade signs and swapping them out for branded materials?

Love those groovy Londoners.  Funny how the British Press is willing to go where the American Press doesn’t dare.  Could it be because they’re smarter?  Perhaps….