Are We Being Sold A "Bill Of Goods" Politically ? Absolutely !

George Corneliussen

Are we being sold a "bill of goods" politically ? Absolutely ! But, then again, when hasn't that been the case ? After all, isn't that what politics is, getting us to "buy" a concept or idea that we would probably resist if it were presented to us in simple black and white terms? Why do we need to be "sold" a political concept or idea ? The answer is as near to us as the closest television. Who among us would rush out to buy a new car if the commercials on television for it featured a list of recalls and mechanical defects the model we were interested in was known for ?

If we survive the aftermath of the war in Iraq and the war on terror, will we decide as a nation that "never again" will we allow ourselves to wake up one morning ( aka September 11th, 2001 ) and find ourselves smack-dab in the middle of a war that took us all by surprise ? In order to answer that question, maybe it's well past time we asked ourselves whether or not we have allowed the worlds of advertising and politics to morph into one big blanket that covers us all.

S.Roland Hall, was an author who wrote several books on advertising in the early 1900's. In 1915, he wrote a book titled Writing An Advertisement ( The Riverside Press, Cambridge, Massachusetts ). In his book, Hall breaks down every aspect of what it takes to create an ad that will connect with the buyer of a product. He outlines not only the part in advertising that the seller plays, but also that of the buyer, as well.

In 1915, America was moving from a farm-based economy to a manufacturing-based economy. This era in America's history is when the modern-day consumer was born. Competition between manufacturers created the need to attract customers beyond simply offering goods for sale. Hall's book, written some 91 years ago, addressed the need for a psychological approach to attracting new customers to a product, because the product itself wasn't enough anymore.

If we allow ourselves to look at modern-day politics in the same way Hall looked at the dilemma sellers of goods faced way back in 1915, we can see an eerie similarity between the world of marketing circa 1915 and the world of politics circa 2006. In today's world , the amount of information the average American has access to prevents politicians from simply offering up an idea and having us as citizens simply take what is being offered at face value. Politicians ( all politicians ) in modern-day America do not present ideas to the public; they market them to them.

Chapter four of Hall's book is titled "The People" . In this chapter, Hall describes the approach to the buying public an advertiser must take in order to connect with that buyer. The chapter opens with these words.

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It is not enough to know the goods or the service that the advertiser is to offer for sale, important as that knowledge is. Advertising, so far as the commercial world is concerned, is a form of selling, and selling is a transaction that comprehends, not only the man who has something to sell and the thing he has to sell, but the people to whom he hopes to sell. The prospective customer is the most important factor in the game. The goods or service to be advertised may be of great value, but commercially speaking, their value amounts to nothing unless the prospective purchaser can be made to see the value. Value depends on state of mind of the prospective purchaser. The mission of advertising is to develop states of mind.

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In the commercial world of today's America, product quality has pretty much been removed from the equation of marketing because of the small amount of manufacturing done domestically. We either buy what is for sale or we go without. This has not removed the need for a psychological angle to advertising. In fact, it has increased the need for it. Sellers of goods need to fabricate reasons why we should buy things that are unrelated to quality.

The same can be said for modern-day American politics. Politicians rely on creating a psychological need in us rather than use the merits of a concept or idea to "sell" us on it. When Hall says, " The goods and service to be advertised may be of great value, but, commercially speaking, their value depends on the state of mind of the prospective purchaser. The mission of advertising is to develop states of mind ", isn't he accurately describing modern-day politics ?

Ideas presented to us by politicians "may be of great value ", but to whom ? Us or them ? When he says "Value depends on state of mind of the prospective purchaser", isn't he accurately describing the way we decide what we do and don't endorse politically ? And when he says, " The mission of advertising is to develop states of mind", isn't he accurately describing the way politicians define success in modern-day American politics ? If we buy into a concept or idea, it is deemed a success . The results the concept or idea produce do not seem to be a factor in determining their success .

So, has our society turned into a giant version of the Home Shopping Network," lock, stock, and barrel " ? There are 17 chapters in Hall's book; they deal with subjects that with very little imagination could be perceived as being from a book titled Selling A Political Idea . Basically, these subjects tell us how to sell something when the product alone just doesn't cut it.

In the final chapter of Hall's book titled " Last Words", Hall inadvertently offers us all a ray of hope when he tells us that bad behavior is the strongest form of advertising there is. He closes with this sentence:

" What you are speaks so loud that I cannot hear what you say ."