(+) and (-) Branding

The Mac vs. PC, and AT&T vs. Verizon advertisements are textbook examples of negative branding campaigns in the commercial markets. Companies dueling it out, to beat down the opponent, hoping to rise out of war's ashes stronger.

Politicians, like products, are being sold to a voting political consumers; the advertisements try to promote a party's or candidate's own political product, or destroy the others'. Advertising has become increasingly focused on promoting a brand image or brand idea, rather than a product's specific quality. Like commercial brand-marketing, political brand-imaging such as Obama's "change" brand, is an extremely influencial weapon to influence public opinion; even to this day in the minds of most Americans, the word "change" still forms an immediate mental connection with the Obama brand.

Since 2008, anti-Barack Obama and Sarah Palin marketing schemes have become prime examples of negative branding in the political sphere, launched by those intending to emerge stronger or aligned with the political battle of the presidential campaigns.

Barack Obama

John McCain's television commericial advertising against opponent Barack Obama focused primarily on a single theme: bad policy judgement and inexperience means that he is not ready to lead, that the Obama-brand is a risky one.

This John McCain campaign advertisement questions Obama's judgement about the Iranian nuclear and military threat, which the video claims Obama to be underestimating. The example of his percieved judgement about Iran comes to the conlcusion that Obama is "dangerously unprepared to be president".


The following three advertisements continue to market the Obama as "risk". These videos reinforce the Obama "risk" brand image by reinforcing the idea that he is 'not ready to lead'.
The McCain TV ad 'Mum' discusses Obama's lack of leadership in the Senate, and portraying an Obama presidency as "a risk your family can't afford".


'Painful' disparages Obama's economic policy record and "promises", ending with the line "not ready to lead" that McCain hopes will reinforce the "risky" image of the Obama-brand.


The following video questions Obama's judgment concerning the use of our military, claiming that his policy decisions are "risking lives", reinforcing the idea that Obama is "not ready to lead".


John McCain

A brand-image that Obama, through similar TV-advertising, pushed upon McCain is that of "the same" - the idea that McCain continues the politics of the last eight years: that the McCain brand = Bush.

Obama's TV ad 'Original' questions the validity of the a McCain brand-image “Maverick” by tying McCain’s policies with that of Bush, beginning with his voting record, perceived corporatism, and ending with a picture of McCain alongside Bush. The ad is effective at introducing a sub-idea about corporate-favoritism, while reinforcing the brand image “More of the Same”.


Obama's television advertisement 'Don't Know Much' features quotes of McCain and a song about his percieved lack of knowledge about certain issues. The advertisement subtly links McCain and Bush through their supposed economic incomprehension and ideological similarities, the latter shown through voting record similarities: undermining both Obama's despised predecessor Bush and opponent McCain.

This Obama TV advertisement exposes McCain's actions to oppose federal intervention in the education system, which is portrayed to see contradictory to Obama's philosophy that education is important. More importantly, this Obama marketing campaign says McCain will give money to special interests, tying McCain to Bush, ending with the iconic McCain-Bush photo and the line "we can't afford more of the same".


The Obama marketing campaign effectively promotes both the McCain brand image "Bush" and a Bush image of corruption, thus tying McCain's "Bush" brand to corruption.

Sarah Palin

During the campaign, the media marketed an image about Govenor Sarah Palin, McCain's running mate in 2008, establishing her as "stupid". Comedies by Saturday Night Live, the leftist New York comedy show, played a major role in promoting this brand image.

The skit features Sarah Palin at the first vice-presidential debates evading questions, making awkward comments, and using unsophisticated language. The character of Palin is portrayed as being completely oblivious and primitive.


The next skit presents Sarah Palin in her interview with CBS's Katie Couric, mocking Palin's performance by highlighting and dramatizing instances demonstrating a lack of coherency, evasion of questions, and poor understanding. The effect of this skit in shaping the brand image was so powerful that many Americans today still believe that the real Palin said the quote from this skit: "I can see Russia from my house".


The Weekend Update comedy part of SNL enforces the Palin image of stupidity by claiming that she is unable to use punctuation.


Obama's TV ad against McCain and Palin, titled 'His Choice', is built entirely on the left marketed Palin image of stupidity. Asserting that John McCain will substitute his supposed lack of understanding about economics with Palin, the advertisement makes an effective sarcastic satire of the weakness of the McCain-Palin ticket that only makes sense if the audience was affected by the "stupid"-branded marketing campaign against Palin; clearly, by the fact that this advertisement was aired nationally, Obama's campaign believed so. In some ways, this advertisement further promotes the image that Palin has a poor understanding of economics (which may be true), and ensures that the whole Republican ticket, especially Palin, is marketed as unsophisticated/stupid.