Whoever thought up and produced this Obama video is a PRopagandaTMgenius. Not that the under-30 set isn’t entirely in Obama’s corner anyway, but this pretty much seals the deal in terms of putting Obama in the territory of “hip.”***
Though the effectiveness of the message-delivery system can’t be disputed, there is an obvious weakness in this kind of campaigning—and this kind of candidate—as Jeff Jarvis points out: It’s all rhetoric.
To me, this only underscores the notion that Obama’s campaign is the most rhetorical of the bunch: speeches and slogans so neat they can fit in 4/4 time.
I agree. The Obama campaign more and more begins to resemble a celebrity marketing campaign, as I mentioned here:
The way Barack Obama is being covered by the media and the blogosphere, he’s not a political candidate anymore—he’s a celebrity. He doesn’t have political followers—he’s got fans. He doesn’t have a political platform—he’s got a one-word slogan—”change” [which works, ’cause “change is good,” just like Nissan says, right?]. He makes narcissists feel so good about themselves.
So: the slogan has changed—now it’s “Yes, we can”—but the marketing pitch is the same: Obama’s the one.
Howard Kurtz tried to burst this bubble on Reliable Sources this morning [e.a.]:
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
HOWARD KURTZ, HOST (voice over): Conjuring Camelot. The media gets swept away over Ted Kennedy’s endorsement of Barack Obama. Are journalists promoting the rookie senator as the next JFK? …KURTZ: The presidential campaign is a blur now, all sound bites and snippets, a 22-state dash to Super Tuesday just two days from now. John McCain has been boosted by winning Florida, by the backing of his formal rival, Rudy Giuliani, and by favorable coverage from the reporters he talked to for hours every day.
Hillary Clinton claimed victory in Florida, a beauty contest where no Democrats campaigned because of the a dispute within the party, but the press wasn’t buying her spin.
And Barack Obama, well, the pundits have been comparing him to JFK since he first started flirting with running. And when Ted Kennedy and Carolina Kennedy endorsed him this week, the media somehow magically transported us to this moment in 1961. …
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
JOHN F. KENNEDY, FMR. PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Let the word go forth from this time and place — to friend and foe alike — that the torch has been passed to a new generation of Americans. (END VIDEO CLIP)
KURTZ: Every anchor and correspondent, it seemed, picked up that metaphor and ran with it.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
BRIAN WILLIAMS, NBC NEWS: On the broadcast tonight from Washington, passing the torch.
KATIE COURIC, CBS NEWS: Tonight, passing the torch.
CHRIS MATTHEWS, MSNBC: The torch gets passed, the Clintons get passed by.
WOLF BLITZER, CNN ANCHOR: Barack Obama touched by the legacy of Camelot.
HARRY SMITH, CBS NEWS: Ted and Caroline set to hit the campaign trail after they announced the heir to Camelot.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
KURTZ: Why have the media gone haywire over this Kennedy endorsement?
The consensus of Kurtz’s panel? Because it makes for a great story. (regardless of what it means, if anything).
The media is all about storytelling. It is not about “the news.” Infotainment rules.
Beyond that: you can’t burst a successful PRopagandaTM gambit with a lot of words. The only way to beat it is to create an even bigger, better, and eye-catching one.
The campaign ‘08 Battle of Iconography goes on.
————-
*** “He’s got soul,” said one of my son’s friends. Being New Yorkers, with everything that’s entailed (that is: living in a bubble of harmony and tolerance … especially now that Giuliani is no longer our mayor), my (young adult) kids and their friends don’t form a representative sample of youth, of course. But they serve as a bellwether of the attitude of their generation.
They feel betrayed. They feel that they were lied to. They want a reason to believe.
