Typically, when it comes to the topic of politics, I tend to keep my opinions to myself. For the most part, I’m pretty ambivalent about politics, but I have recently been accused of “looking like a liberal,” whatever that means. But truthfully, I don’t really care that much; if that makes me an irresponsible American, then I’m an irresponsible American.
But anyway, I saw this sticker on a pickup truck (naturally), and it really got me thinking: why would a sticker bother to show the President Obama logo at all in a piece of attempted smear paraphernalia? It doesn’t mention at all, what would be taking Obama’s place on January 20, 2013. It is going to be Mitt Romney? Ross Perot? Predators? Cthulhu?
I get that this is a person who doesn’t like Obama. As I passed him as he was going to the liquor store (of course), he looked every bit of what I expected him to look like. I get that as we’ve grown up, it’s not even so much about people caring about who the next president is as much as it is “MY GUY WAS THE GUY WHO GOT IN AND NOT YOURS,” and that there are stickers, shirts, and other paraphernalia to further push that sentiment. But from a marketing standpoint, paraphernalia like this is about the worst kind of propaganda you could possibly fly.
Imagine if Coke decided to start a smear campaign against Pepsi. And they made a sticker or shirt that said “NO” but instead of an O, would be the Pepsi emblem. And nowhere on the rest of the shirt would there be anything else. That would be the precise equivalent of this GONE bumper sticker. It gives no indication to the alternate, while freely advertising the opposition. When marketing, you act like you have no opposition. In Coke’s ideals, Pepsi doesn’t exist. They market to remind consumers that Coke products exist and that they should probably go out and get some now, not “avoid our opposition and get our shit instead.” Coke releases commercials and markets with messages and ideas, while Pepsi puts Snoop Dogg in commercials and tries to belittle Coke. Despite the fact that Pepsi has good footing in the United States, there’s a reason why Coke pretty much owns the rest of the planet.
From a marketing standpoint GONE is about as fail as you could possibly get. If you’re the Obama camp, you’re essentially saying “hey, thanks for the free advertising of our logo, while poorly mentioning your agenda.”
