Political Branding—Masterful or Monstrous?

The 2008 Obama branding campaign has been deemed one of the most successful branding campaigns for a political candidate and cause. In an interview by Steven Heller for the NY Times, branding expert Brian Collins asserts it’s because they used a single-minded visual strategy to deliver their campaign’s message with greater consistency and, as a result, greater collective impact.The design strategy focused on multiple platforms— cell phones, mobile devices, websites, e-mail, social networks, iPods, laptops, billboards, print ads and campaign events. Using shape, type, and color, the design team created a campaign successfully visualizing emotional messages that conveyed “hope” and “change we can believe in” across the nation and subsequently gained mindshare of the American people.In his book Iron Fists: Branding the 20th-Century Totalitarian State, author Steven Heller asks, “how did a practice as vile as branding become so valued, indeed, the very mark of value?” Heller writes how in the past branding was used for slaves and criminals. Today, cities and colleges have joined toothpastes and soft drinks in the battle for “brand loyalty.”Heller compares corporate branding strategies—slogans, mascots, jingles and the rest—to those adopted by four of the most destructive 20th-century totalitarian regimes: Fascist Italy, Nazi Germany, the Soviet Union under Lenin and Stalin, and Mao’s China. Heller asserts that design and marketing methods used to inculcate doctrine and guarantee consumption are fundamentally similar.What do you think about political branding and how can you tell if it's masterful or monstrous?Sources:http://campaignstops.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/04/02/to-the-letter-born/http://www.nytimes.com/2008/07/31/arts/31iht-IDLEDE2.1.14885119.html?_r=2