election

The (Literal) Ugliness of the 2012 Campaign

In 2008, Obama was just so startlingly far ahead of everyone else with his whole communications program, both in the way it was conceived and the way it was implemented: all the innovation he had in social networking, using without any embarrassment the trappings of consumer marketing and consumer branding. It was such a nice fit between what his message was that year and the package it came in that I think it just added up to a real success.

Certainly, it was an imitate-able success…there’s much less distinction between Obama and Romney this year.

Their differences have little do with the way they’re deploying their graphics — although, as a designer, I assure you that Obama’s graphics are better than Romney’s. But they’re not as startlingly different in their very nature as they seemed to be four years ago.

— Bonnie