Letters to the Editor
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America's Marketing Mentality Meets The Sanity Clause
For the first time in my entire life, I have read a marketing article that actually serves the good purpose rather than greed and consumption. Thank you Jeff Yang, thank you Salon, and thank you DDB! But most of all, thank you Barack Obama, for having had the fortitude and foresight, the steady hand and the quiet mind to wage the sort of campaign that has made an article like this a possibility. Just on the edge of darkness, when, as Chairman Mao once said "It's always darkest just before it goes completely black", someone has thrown us a rope, and the rope and the thrower are one.
Yes, I know, this article is likely to set off a firestorm here. It won't be the first time, but it may well be the last, at least on this topic, because the people are reaching for the rope, and not just here but all over this beleaguered planet. You cynics (and I know you're out there -- I can hear you seething) can blow your wad now and get it over with, because the tide is about to crest, and for once in the lifetime of the Republic we may be on the threshold of going sane.
I've lived for this moment. It's almost here. And once we have crossed this marketing bridge we can damn well burn it behind us, but at least it will have finally paid for itself. The article and the findings contained in it make emminent sense. It is a remarkable and even paradoxical thing, but there it is. We have one clear-cut candidate who can "re-brand" us as a nation, as a people, and, ultimately, as a world.
Yes, it sounds all wooly-headed, airy fairy, silly, stupid, and of course, if god had intended us to fly he would have given us wings. That's right. Go there.
Screw the cynics, screw the skeptics, meet the facts. Here it comes, and the good old American marketing mentality has proven it.
Onward and upward, not just a man of the people, but the people, at long last, alongside a man.
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@stephenjudd: Bush might have been the guy you wanted to "have a beer with". . .
. . . but would you give him your car keys?
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Branding IS important
It's getting old to hear people say that Barack Obama has no substance, and it's inane for people to point to this article as a perfect example of that. For one, the "lack of substance" argument can really only be made by the ignorant at this point. More importantly, superficial things like "brand" actually are important.
Clearly, we should be alert to "the issues," but anyone who thinks that that should be the only facet of a candidate that decides the election is naive. All of the most respected presidents of the past (at least since the television era began) have been likable individuals. People in other countries will respect a decision to elect a likable, multicultural president. They won't care if we elect someone whose health care policy is comprehensive, because most of them won't know the differences.
And what do we care what people think of us? In our globalist society, it's ridiculous not to care. Last time I checked, having allies in the world was a good thing, a thing that paid off. You know, that's why countries have made such a big thing out of it for all of modern civilization...
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It's true
I teach English at a religious high school in Indonesia, and it's fascinating how involved my students are getting in the American elections. Every day my students tell me "Obama this" and "Hillary that." The picture of Obama wearing what my students call "Muslim dress" was front-page news in Radar Madiun, my local Indonesian-language paper.
My students can't vote. They're about as far from America as you can get. Even if they were Americans, they'd be too young... they're sixteen and seventeen-year-old girls. But to say that their opinions don't matter is to take a remarkably myopic view of 21st century politics. This is the so-called "Muslim street" that marketers on both sides of the aisle--peddlers of religious extremism, proponents of political moderation--are targeting. These educated, articulate, English-speaking girls are tomorrow's university students, teachers, activists, and parents. You may think that the "war on terror" is happening in the markets of Baghdad and Pakistan, but my war on terror is happening in the hearts and minds of Muslim girls.
And you have no idea how big and important America seems to them. It's the "best" country, the "most popular" country, the "richest" country, the "cleverest" country, the "number one country." It has the best universities and the most beautiful land and the most natural resources. To them, America is immensely, impossibly powerful--so powerful, in fact, that it's obvious that the only reason America can't, say, fix the Middle East, is because America doesn't want to.
And hell, maybe they're right.
As part of my unit on elections and democracy, I had my students write letters to Senator Obama. He's the most well-known candidate here, and his early years in Indonesia are the subject of much enthusiastic conversation and speculation. They want to know what school he attended, what part of Jakarta he lived in, how long he stayed there. But when my students write to a presidential candidate, they don't want biographies and pictures of the Capitol building. Their words:
"But, if you be a president please, don’t oppress the Moslem over there we are same, we live in this world for making peaceful not for making a fighting. Between America and Islamic country there are never peace[...]If this world be peaceful no war, I will always proud of you. Between America and Palestina, we as Moslem know that America is a rich, a strong country but don’t make war and war." -a junior (17)
"I always read the newspaper and there’s your picture, profile, and many other news about you. I believe, one more step, you can reach what you hope, be the President of America. And if you be the president, I hope you will change this world to be good, peace and full of kindness. Because, I think, Bush always thinks about war, war, and war. America is the super power country. And then, if you can change America to be good, that’s mean you can change this world to be good too. There are no wars, no cry, no differences among Moslem, protestants, catholics, etc. Irak, Palestine and other Moslem countries are same with other countries in the world. We are one, this world is one. I really hope it very much. And you’re the man who able to do it." -A sophomore (16)
Don't think that the Muslim world doesn't care or doesn't notice. Indonesia might seem pretty far away to you, but America seems very near to Indonesians. The world's perception of America does matter.