US polls all about branding the candidate

To millions of Americans, Coca-Cola means refreshment, McDonald8217;s says hamburgers and Playboy is 8220;wow8221;.

To millions of Americans, Coca-Cola means refreshment, McDonald8217;s says hamburgers and Playboy is 8220;wow8221;. And that kind of instant association with familiar consumer brands may be the key to the 2008 presidential race.

In a trend that goes back to The Selling of the President8212;a book that described how advertising consultants packaged Richard Nixon in the 1968 campaign8212;consultants are positioning their candidate as a brand. The hope is that Hillary conjures up 8220;experienced leader,8221; Obama translates into 8220;fresh outsider8221; and Rudy means 8220;America8217;s mayor8221;.

8220;A candidate is like a brand because a brand lives in your mind, and you differentiate it,8221; said Bob Gardner of the San Francisco-based ad agency Maiden Lane, which has produced political spots for President Gerald Ford. 8220;Every piece of communication goes to build that, and reinforce that.8221;

8220;If anyone had any doubt about how we choose the most important political office in the US8230; we do it by the brand rather than the ideas,8221; said Richard Levick, president of Levick Strategic Communications, a leading crisis communications firm in New York. 8220;We choose them as we do diapers or cornflakes8230;we buy things emotionally.8221;

But as American consumers absorb as many as 5,000 advertising messages a day, political campaigns must be savvy about how and why successful brands cut through the clutter. Experts said a candidate8217;s brand is more than just a slick image. It is built on a foundation of issues and priorities that help define each contender.

And in the brave new world of 21st-century politics, candidates8217; 8220;brands8221; are shaped not only by TV commercials and word-of-mouth, but by an ever-expanding number of internet freelancers8212;including bloggers, YouTube videographers and Facebook users. They pose an unprecedented danger for the candidates, experts said, via fast-raging viral attacks, videos or blogs that can erode loyalty, reshape a brand and be impossible to control.

But campaign managers hoping to use the internet to establish their candidates8217; brand will also have to deal with some potential problems. On the Net, 8220;once it8217;s out there 8230; it8217;s out there. There8217;s no venue for correction, retraction or rebuttal. And no authority to whom to appeal for redress,8221; said Steve Harty, chairman of the North American division of the British powerhouse ad agency BBH.

8211;Carla Marinucci