Giovanna Di Sauro

I usually do not mention politics on this blog, but today I am due for an exception. Yesterday night, Barack Obama became the 44th President-elect of the United States of America.

I am not going to discuss this because the States are such an influential player in world politics, so influential that their decisions often have a decisive impact for most other countries involved in alliances, wars, or treaties with them. I am going to discuss it because, although it now seems inevitable that Obama should win this election, it was in fact not so. The extraordinary part of yesterday night was that Obama, after unexpectedly clinching the Democratic nomination, went on to win the post of US President — by a landslide. And although we got used to hearing his name and seeing his face repeatedly in the last two years, the unlikelihood of this event is something that should be sealed in our memory — and understood.

Obama likes to say that this is proof that America really is what she says she is, that it is a “country of unyielding hope”, and that this hope can make the most unlikely dreams come true. It maybe hasn’t sunk in, in the minds of many, that Obama shares his middle name with millions of Muslim people around the Earth, that he is the son of globalization and that, while he says that “this couldn’t have happened in any other country on earth”, we in fact know that many like him exist, all over the world — living in inter-racial families, building their lives in more than one country, and carrying a true melting pot around in their gene pool. But this is maybe not the most important thing in the campaign.

What is, in my opinion, the most stunning thing, is that we had a chance to observe, for two years, how a civil servant not widely known to the public, and with an unlikely personal story for a politician (even for a place like America), managed to get the most difficult and powerful job on earth. How did he do it? Why did he win?

The most likely reasons, which surely played a big part, I think only deserve bullet points in this post, because they have been extensively discussed elsewhere:

• the economic crisis – the ruling party during an economic crisis usually does not get re-elected right away
• the war in Iraq – it has been dragging on for 7 years now, and people’s support for the war has been steadily decreasing over the years
• people are bored and want “change” – after eight years of the Republican Party occupying the White House, you could imagine this would be the time when people finally got tired of it
• people are now paying more attention to social and economic, rather than moral issues – which favours the Democratic Party
• race? maybe yes, maybe no, but I think everyone would agree that this is a step towards creating “A More Perfect Union“, and start washing away, in practical terms, the sin of slavery.

Ultimately, though, I think there are two main factors: the circumstances (all of the above), and this man’s ability to orchestrate the most successful marketing campaign of all times — well, maybe after Jesus, Mohamed and Buddha.

What is marketing? Is it selling a product? Is it making money? Is it lying, and tricking people, and making them think they will be happier after they get something rather than now? Maybe a mediocre marketer could believe that – someone who just wants to sell you stuff, whatever the “stuff” is. And it is true – people are receptive to certain design and communication “tricks”. But does this make them stupid?

In our world, information is not only sent in by the traditional media – a new form of communication is rising, and although traditional media still has a great role in generating it, it now goes in two directions, and tons of the discussion is now generated by what used to be the traditional audience. This also means that, although this audience are still susceptible to the old “tricks” (they are human after all), it also means that they are becoming more skilled at recognizing insincerity, but also the very instruments of marketing.

At this point in time, the great marketer is not selling you anything. He or she embodies an idea, and the marketer challenges you to take it on yourself. Things are just a vehicle for that idea, nothing more than something on the side – something that surely generates income, but is never the main focus.

Barack Obama’s campaign is the greatest marketing campaign since the time of the prophets because he challenged everybody to take on what he believes in, to look at his personal story and say, “I am not that different, I am starting from zero just like he did, so I can do it too”. At which point, although the entire campaign was magistrally directed by him, his chief campaign manager and his chief strategist, much of it took a life of its own, with or without the campaign’s approval or endorsement. Some examples? The funny Obama Girl videos, the songs, the graphic designers and artists working around the clock to support him, the American volunteers, and those around the world who called in — cold-called American people, asking them to join in, to do what they are not allowed to do not because they do not want to pick up the challenge, but because, alas, they are not American citizens.

Is Obama’s election evidence that his campaign was great? Yes. But at the same time, we will only know how great it was if people will finally pick up the challenge “be their brother’s keeper, be their sister’s keeper”, and start paying attention, in their daily life, to the common good and not only to their personal business. If Obama the marketer is the real deal, he will never give up — this is his life, this is his mission, this is his story, and will work relentlessly, during his whole life, to make this idea spread like a plague, like a virus, until the world turns old  and not one of us will be left without knowing his name, and having taken up that challenge. If he ends up raising almost $700 mil and selling some cups and shirts in the meantime, instead of dying on a cross or ransacking some caravans, well, that’s just part of getting there and getting it done in the 21st century.

Credits: the poster was designed by Shepard Fairey, and the composite image is from Neu Black.

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