(Hang with me, I do have a point and will make it soon :^)
This talk about the good news from the polls in Florida and Michigan got me thinking about the Flip-Flop tag that Kerry has been pretty well stained with, and hence this bit of analysis.
Understand something about entertaining the masses: All you need is one small thing to be spoon-fed to them in order to have a certain media project permeate public consciousness.
This is where the phrase "There's no such thing as bad publicity" comes from. In a sense, that's correct -- a goal for any company is to have their product's name out there:a feature in Time magazine, the Sunday Times, or in the monologues of Jay or Dave.
Take for example, a movie that hits the zeitgeist through one image or line that instantly becomes attached to that film. The best examples being the 'fava beans' line from "Silence of the Lambs" or that quarter-image of the girl speaking into the camcorder in "The Blair Witch Project". Familiarity with the entire product, however, is not required. If you ask 10 people where the line "I see dead people" comes from, I'm willing to bet 9 of them instantly reply "The Sixth Sense". Ask that same number how many of them actually saw the movie, probably 5 will say yes.
Same with hit singles. "One-hit wonders" are victims of this phenomenon as well. They often have that one quirky, off kilter song that is everywhere for a few months, and then they drop off the face of the planet, until resurrected by VH1. I saw Debby Boone on a PBS concert special last night singing "You Light Up My Life" and I remembered how everyone absolutely hated hated HATED that song in '77, yet it set a world's record for longest song at number one at the time.
Love it or hate it, you at least know the chorus.
This can happen with people as well; celebrities often have one thing, one feature or habit that can get them instantly known by the general public. Jessica Simpson's singing career was going absolutely nowhere until her reality show took off. Now she's got what you might call "the dumb blonde thing" going for her. There's Julia Roberts who's got "the smile thing". J-Lo has "the butt thing". Allen Iverson has "the controversial basketball player thing."
This is not quite branding, (Oprah, Katie Couric, Superman, and Mickey Mouse are brands) as much as it is establishing a sort of touchstone or a persona. Call it pre-branding.
Which leads me back to the point of my subject line. The "Flip-Flop" thing. If the Bush campaign has one success it has been in making the tag stick. Never mind that seeing things in shades of grey as Kerry said is hardly a bad thing, and never mind that Bush is Flip-Flopper #1, it is sticking.
But what the Bushies hadn't counted on is that it has, in a weird way, enhanced his public persona. The average person -- by this I mean people who don't read daily papers, let along blogs -- did NOT have a clear idea of who John Kerry was in January of 2004. Gephardt, Lieberman, and even Sharpton had higher visibility than Kerry. Edwards was being heralded by the press as "Clinton minus the adultery." Clark was, of course, The General.
So when he sewed up the nomination, Rove threw everything at Kerry -- and "Flip-Flopper" stuck.
But "Flip-Flopper" has taken on a life of it's own to the point where it has become the "thing" that the average person can identify about him.
And as it happens, it's a relatively innocuous tag to have. It helps of course, that after the convention, he also has the "Vietnam Vet thing" and the "Professional Leadership thing".
The "Flip-Flopper thing" -- along with the "Shove It Thing" -- have allowed the mainstream to connect with Kerry's name. It gives something for the press and pundits to talk about and that, my friends -- good or bad -- is free publicity. which has improved his public awareness levels.
And like I said, it's not that bad a tag. Think about it -- Al Gore had the "Wooden and Dull thing": it may have hurt a bit but >>psst!<<
he still won the damn election! Mainly because he didn't have the "Republican President Elected Me To The Supreme Court Thing"
So Kerry's got the "Flip-flop Thing". Big Deal. He can afford it because, among other things, he's up against an opponent who's got the "Dumber Than A Bag of Rocks Thing".