The 2016 campaign is barely under way, and this week Hillary for America unveiled its branded smear-fighting/fact-checking program, The Briefing: As the content lead for the 2008 Obama campaign’s Fight the Smears microsite and Obama Action Wire email program, I’ve reviewed similar branded fact-army efforts like Mythopedia and the Factivists…
Hillary Clinton’s Campaign Launches Strong on Inequality
There’s been a lot of harping on Hillary Clinton’s logo since she rolled out her presidential campaign last week, but her moves on economic inequality will likely have a bigger impact on her #politicalbrand. Specifically, Clinton is making it clear early on that an anti-inequality position will represent a key…
The Political Brand Fallout in Indiana
Indiana’s unfolding drama with legalizing discrimination has spawned a nationwide media storm, boycotts of the state, and one compromise bill that just made everyone unhappy. This has caused damage to the political brands of the state of Indiana and nationwide Republicans. After decades of building electoral successes on “God, guns,…
Obama About to Ace the Impossible Choice Between Fairness and Growth
Fair is fair, right? Well, except when it’s unfair. Appealing to people’s sense of fairness can be incredibly powerful in politics, but fairness is also one of the trickiest concepts in political psychology and cognitive linguistics to get right. Many voters sense that they’re being unfairly left out of the…
Why Democrats Must Stop Campaigning and Start Managing Political Brands
If the problem for Democrats isn’t the policies, it must be the other stuff — the trust, the emotional connection, the identity. In short, the political brand. And judging by some of the contradictory results buried in Democrats’ mid-term
Democratic Political Brand Crumbles, But for How Long?
The 2012 election showed us how badly troubled the Republican political brand is — but this month’s election showed Democrats are in a lot of trouble, too. From here on, each side has a clear challenge: while the Republican electoral coalition doesn’t have the raw numbers of its Democratic counterpart,…
How to Blow a Right-Wing Billionaire’s Money
Aren’t mighty captains of industry like Charles and David Koch supposed to derive their success in business because they’re so calm and rational and make such good decisions? Isn’t that what’s earned them the money to make us all tremble at their enormous election spending? Then why are they so…
Decisively Improving Hillary Clinton’s Political Brand
Back in 2007 and 2008, Hillary Clinton, candidate for president, had trouble making up her mind. Just as commercial brands must be decisive, indecision at the top of the Clinton campaign ended up undermining the entire #politicalbrand, contributing to an upset defeat at the hands of Barack Obama in the…
Republicans Attack Government’s Brand, 2 of 2: Origins and Future of a Branding Problem
Conservative hero (and top government official of the United States) Ronald Reagan famously said, “Government is not the solution to our problem; government is the problem.” That quote is perhaps the most iconic example of Republicans’ systematic efforts throughout recent decades to poison the brand of government — an irony…
Daily Show: Brand-Name Politics
Michael Che investigates American loyalty to political brand names such as “Clinton” and “Bush” and searches for a unique 2016 presidential candidate. (5:28) The Daily ShowGet More: Daily Show Full Episodes,Indecision Political Humor,The Daily Show on Facebook