Kamala campaign copies the same branding techniques as Kool-Aid, Amazon, and Joy dish soap
Joy was a lemon-scented dishwashing brand before its name became the theme of the 2024 DNC strategy to win the election.
Yet, in each case, cuteness and 'vibe' were promised through humanization – or as the advertising industry calls it, "anthropomorphization" of the product to be sold. Joy used a talking lemon in one of its ads to humanize its production.
The Democrats use Kamala Harris to anthromorphize their product, which is the Democrat agenda. Kamala, in other words, is the talking lemon.
Harris’s supporters state explicitly that they intend to "humanize" the candidate.
Anthropomorphizatio
The intention of anthropomorphizing advertising is to sympathetically endear the item to the viewer by putting a human face with it, as the item cannot endear itself.
In 1954, the Kool-Aid Man got this trend in visual PR going. We know the method with other products such as M&M sweetened candies, and we know it with lemon-scented dishwashing fluid called Joy.
Studies show anthropomorphizing advertising can make brands roughly two times more desirable by stoking a feeling for the presented character, which becomes mentally associated with the product.
That is now being applied to the political scene with the 2024 election. Former President Bill Clinton, who is campaigning for Kamala Harris, endeared Kamala with the term, “the president of joy.” Former President Obama also campaigning for Harris, making her sympathetic with the idea that she's a helpless victim of misogyny.
“Humanizing” a less-known product, then, is the goal of getting Harris elected, as it is of selling the Kool-Aid beverage, the M&M’s candy, the Amazon box, and the Joy liquid soap.
Trump's branding is of the non-anthropomorphizing kind, befitting a person known as well as he is. He breaks caricatures and models of politicians instantaneously. “Let Trump be Trump” has been the accepted, raw, and sometimes maddening method of his campaigning.
Indeed those who were the most begrudging of Trump's changes to Republican campaigning are no longer Republican supporters. Madison Square Garden Trump rally speakers pointed out the realigning in which today Liz Cheney and Colin Powell back Democrats, while RFK, Jr. and many union workers support Republicans. He is who he is. Costume-wearing and mold-fitting has not only ended in GOP presidential politics, it has been run out of town.
The tale of the year for Kamala Harris has differed starkly. Attempts to “let Kamala be Kamala” have accompanied a noted drop in her odds of winning the election.
That's why her campaign, in response, sought to make a calculated compromise to deal with this issue, by trying to cut a deal regarding an appearance on the Joe Rogan podcast, reports say. They proposed that Harris would be available to speak with Rogan for one hour, rather than Rogan’s three-hour format, which was unacceptable to Rogan.
After all, what would it amount to? Instead of baring herself as a person in dialogue, Kamala Harris would present sound bites without expended time to delve deeply into who she is and where she is coming from, as occurs in the extremely popular three-hour format with an interviewer.
In exchange for the authenticity that comes from long, unscripted sit-downs, the public relations approach the Harris campaign is attempting is a page taken from anthropomorphizing advertising.
Anthropomorphization techniques generally work to sell products which is why they are used.
Studies show that the more isolated, atomized, and “lonely” people are –- bad signs if such emotions are increasing in the country –- the more people tend to be influenced to like a product through anthropomorphization. Emotionally needy persons are, in fact, most effectively lured into gaslighting abuse through “love-bombing,” which is what adorable, anthropomorphized vibe characters emit.
But it's not foolproof. Anthromorphization in fact can fail, and actually reduce desirability of the product if the feeling stoked for the character is negative. According to research, negativity can happen if it is sensed that the anthropomorphized character is trying to dispel concerns about the product with a disingenuous smile.
Having no wins of any delegates in a national primary election ever, it is true that an anthropomorphizing campaign would be indicated for her case by PR industry flow charts used by marketing officers and consultants. If it's working, it will be known on Nov. 5.
The best interests of America are seldom, if ever, tethered to what's good for any single brand. Branding a candidate using the “right” public relations approach for Kamala Harris cannot truthfully be tied to steering the ship of state. If we get an anthropomorphization of a human being as president, how would we know who is steering?
Democrats could lemon Joy, Kool-Aid, and “Anything You Need, I'm Your Box” themselves into the most well-executed presidential campaign for their candidate ever seen, and it still wouldn't speak of the candidate's preparation for the job. Much less would that campaign’s image branding “success” prove victorious over the nation's challenges.
To be sure, Trump and the Republican Party are not above public relations consultants, and Trump is not, as some might wish, a daily streamer taking Internet chat questions for even further public prodding. However, Trump is the more exposed and known candidate – perhaps the most exposed raw candidate in history. It's hard to argue against that claim given how he has had his stated worldviews pressed against by legacy media outfits for nine years and he continues to share his views bluntly and off the cuff.
In this way, the 2024 presidential election pits corporate media branding against what the people of America see and hear directly. We can choose to drink our Kool-Aid and shine our china with lemony fragrance, or we can demand ruggedly tested primary-winning reality.
Image: Screen shot from BigKoter video, via YouTube