Politics and Private Media

The 2008 race to replace President Bush is well underway, and it bears watching how the candidates will be using media to get their message to voters.  I think we will start to see them move further away from the traditional ads of the past and start to embrace Private Media—taking directly to the voters using their own media channel. Traditional political advertising on TV and radio is dreadful. There are basically two types of ads—the “pro” ad where the candidate stands in front of a flag on a factory floor or farm and proclaims he is for all that is good and holy, especially lower taxes. The ad usually ends with a posed shot with his Stepford wife and 2.5 perfect kids. Then we have the “negative” ad, where a candidate is beaten up for some past vote or comment (usually twisted from the real facts) and is shown is the most unflattering picture they can find—usually in a grimace. They are all the same no matter which side runs them, and I would guess people tune them out and don’t pay attention anymore.

I think we will see the major candidates bypassing traditional media and speaking directly to potential voters. The Sopranos parody Hillary Clinton put on her site is just one of many ways the candidates are using blogs, social networking sites, You Tube, email and meetups to talk directly to the people and not going through the filter of traditional media. I am sure they will still spend obscene amounts of money on the public airways, but the tide may be changing.

It will be interesting to watch who will use Private Media more effectively. For the past 20+ years, the Republicans have been much better marketers than the Democrats.  Modern campaigning is no different than the latest marketing campaign to sell a car, new movie or fashion. The GOP has been just flat out better at TV ads, direct mail, database mining, and they own talk radio, which is just another form of ad driven entertainment.  Laura Ingraham and Bill O’Reilly may want Hollywood to shut up and sing, but they are in the same business as Susan Sarandon and Alec Baldwin—show business. (more about that in a future posting)

Just a hunch here, the Democrats will do a better job of exploiting private media and web 2.0 technologies. Those talents and technologies skew younger and to a more diverse generation. Will Private Media propel the Democrats to the White House; or will they find a way to blow an election that is their’s to win? We will be keeping our eye on this over the next 18 months- right now it is anyone’s to win.

Share This