When did everything become a "brand"?

[undeterred]

The current lingo seems to be to talk about the candidates and the parties as "brands" as if everything is about marketing/advertising... I like to think of the political parties in terms of VALUES, not brands.

:shrug:

[That Is Quite Enough]

1. It's the new meme invented by the media and adopted by everyone else.

I dunno what purpose it serves except to make everything sound more 'advertisement'-ish.

[salin]

6. GOP chair Mehlman went public with the term in the 2006 cycle

the fools in the GOP put he (just out of the WH) in charge of the GOP. When folks wanted to run away from bush, as it became clear that the GOP was going to face congressional losses, he declared that would be a bad strategy that bush was the GOP brand, at least until the next presidential (GOP) candidate took the foreground.

[gratuitous]

2. When the corporatists decided we're nothing more than consumers

It's such a pervasive atmosphere, we almost don't notice it. And we participate in it in ways large and small that we sometimes don't even realize that we've bought into it. Like saying "bought into."

[lectrobyte]

3. Seemed to happen around 1980 or so. Effective marketing became way

more important than substance from what I can tell.

[undeterred]

4. I never heard the phrase "the Republican brand" till this year.

Maybe its only a brand when its broken. :shrug:

[salin]

9. I first heard it per the GOP in 2006

see my post above.

[Deja Q]

11. Like commercials showing sex instead of what the product does.

It makes no sense that some bloke eating sugar loaded breath mints will become popular or a scantily clad chick is draped over a sports car. Both suggest the product will get you the sexy, but who thought that was a good way to advertise things?

Of course, there's always "Members Only"...

[undeterred]

13. That's funny!

:applause:

[Warpy]

5. When corporate admen took over both parties

at least to the campaigns both parties run.

Obama's a fresh breath of air only because he doesn't take the time to measure and parse a response to please the admen and their focus groups. He answers quickly.

The admen have had relatively less power over his campaign so far.

[Lex]

7. The deification of corporations and their "products" is complete.

nt

[Deja Q]

8. Didn't brands once strive for value?

I mean, "100 years of us" no longer means much of anything.

[undeterred]

10. Why do the cereal boxes keep getting smaller, and the prices bigger?

:shrug:

[Deja Q]

15. To inversely match the ratio between

the size of the ego and the size of the CEO's wiener.

Of course, if you had put "prices bigger" before "cereal boxes smaller", then my punch line wouldn't need to have been inverted. :D

[Occam Bandage]

12. Long time ago.

[blues90]

14. Everything IS about marketing /advertising.

That in itself is exactly why we are where we are , right now. It has always been the case and this is what one should always fight against , not buy into.

I wonder what would happen if tomarrow morning everyone woke up and every single TV set just vanished and all the places that make them vanished and all the internet traps went away. Just no add's period.

Then people would finally be forced to think for themselves and the corporations would crash.

[burythehatchet]

16. When we became consumers instead of citizens

[undeterred]

20. I just want to be a citizen.

[leftofthedial]

17. when the corporations took over

[Deja Q]

18. Band-aid is a brand and it's stuck on John Travolva

:cry:

[readmoreoften]

19. Bout 3 years into Reagan's first term

[Batgirl]

21. Branding is an age-old marketing strategy

used to sell products even before the term "branding" was used. The people who do political marketing have been using "branding" techniques since way before the term started to become familiar to people who don't work in advertising.

The GOP has demonstrated much greater discipline when it comes to creating and implementing an artificial brand identiy, because they really have no other choice.
Statistics show that Democratic values actually have majority support in the population:

"In truth, however, the Democratic class of 2006 was remarkably progressive. According to a survey conducted by Media Matters, all 30 newly elected House Democrats who took Republican seats advocated raising the minimum wage, supported changing course in Iraq, and opposed any effort to privatize Social Security. All but two supported embryonic stem cell research and only five described themselves as "pro-life" on the issue of abortion. Thirty-seven House and Senate candidates who promoted "fair trade" rather than "free trade" won; none of them lost. 9 Candidates in the freshman class who were conservative on a particular issue got the lion's share of attention, but they were a distinct minority.
The majority of the population expressed If they talked about their actual goals and values they wouldn't have emough support to gain and retain power."
http://mediamatters.org/progmaj/report

When Bush was running for his first term, many people were fooled by the just-plain-folks, Texas-rancher, guy-you'd-like-to-have-a-beer with brand that was created for him.
Even though none of the easily verified facts about Bush supported the brand identity. The brand identity, which went by the official name "Compassionate Conservatism," wasn't just somewhat misleading, but was specifically designed in every aspect to conceal a truly radical and looney wingnut ideology.

It seems that people in general are now more aware of advertising/marketing techniques and I hope that means that now, unlike 8 years ago, they'll be better at identifying it when they see it, particularly when it is completely and intentionally misleading. Maybe then the discussion can focus on actual values.

[Batgirl]

22. and when you see Rove calling Obama "arrogant" that little shit is trying to create a brand

for our candidate. Rove is ALL about the branding.

[elocs]

23. Brand is what locks you into one mindset--rigid and immutable.

It doesn't allow you to grow or evolve. It doesn't allow you to change your mind or to hear other points of view and be able to admit you were mistaken. "My Country Right or Wrong" is certainly a brand.

Don't kid yourself, we Democrats have our "brands" too. Being "Liberal" can be a brand too and the irony is that our minds are often so wide open by our perspective that they are closed to any idea that does not come from us. We never seem to doubt or question that our point of view is not absolutely right, and neither do the neocons and Buschco. Still, I'd rather be a Liberal. I just wish we wouldn't so often have the tendency to turn so much into a deadly serious the sky is falling, the country is collapsing, and the Constitution is over crisis.

[arcadian]

24. Hyper reality, everything is an illusion.

Things aren't what they are, they are only what you think they are.

[ColbertWatcher]

25. When they killed off the jingle writers...

...and bought already-familiar music to sell their crap.