Wow, what a brand platform! First, Republican candidate Romney pronounces 48% of us as not taking responsibility for ourselves, and then his running mate Ryan says 30% of us are “takers” not “makers.”
Who is the angry candidate? Who seems foreign to America?
The current Republican brand – or at least the brand that’s pounding ads in swing states, is targeted to a very narrow slice of their own party. The ads are very anti-social, anti-equality, anti-healthcare, anti-birth control and slashed government services except if a woman gets pregnant and therefore is subject to a vaginal ultrasound. Did you ever think that all that would garner about half of the electorate?
Given all that, and the economics of what appears to be the Republican plan, it seems about 120,000 US families who earn more than $8 million annually should be steadfastly Republican. This fraction of 300 million Americans, fits into a bit more than two NFL stadiums.
It seems that everyone else stands in real danger of having some very critical tax breaks and services go way on inauguration day.
But there’s a huge lesson for branding in this election.
It’s not just “be’s” that matter to a brand. The “wannabes” create much of the buzz around a luxury brand. And, apparently a lot of people who are being dissed by the luxury oriented Republican ticket, “wannabe” be in those stadiums. Stripped of most higher education Pell grants, healthcare or family planning – it would be quite a feat to be that upwardly mobile.
Who watched those debates and got some of the details – the few that were disclosed? Just 50-60 million people, a fraction of the citizens who will be impacted by this election, or perhaps as happened in the Bush-Gore contest, the selection of the executive branch of government.
Is it the lack of attention to detail or something else – maybe something more unflattering like how many Americans really feel about “diversity?”
Really, how do you reconcile reality?
Maybe no one is taking these threats to our way of life very seriously.
Romney-Ryan are evocative of the old comedian Don Rickles or the less old Andrew Dice Clay. As sarcastic, mean-spirited funny man brands: these men ridiculed, stereotyped, hated; and people laughed. People paid money to be in the audience and get insulted! It’s like if Jeff Foxworthy were really dissing the rednecks, not just laughing with them – but laughing at them.
In about a month, we’ll see who’s laughing.
