They're voting for mayor in Salem, Massachusetts and other places today. Although I live in the town next to Salem, I know absolutely nothing about the candidates, although I assume they're both Democrats, as I believe they rounded up the remaining 12 Republicans in Salem long ago and slapped them into oblivion. Driving around the city, however, it is clear to me that candidate Kim Driscoll has by far the better campaign strategist than her challenger Kevin Harvey, based entirely upon their respective signs, and slogans. And there may be some lessons in this.
Ms. Driscoll's slogan is:
"A Strong Mayor for Positive Change".
Can't you just feel the energy and enthusiasm flowing from those powerful words: "Strong, Positive, Change". And it doesn't say "vote for" Kim Driscoll, it just refers to her as "a strong Mayor," as if she's already in the position. Also, I think there's a subtle, subliminal message there: if you add the word "a" before "positive, it comes across as "for a ... change", which conveys the sense that we've been suffering under a Weak mayor for a long time, and at last we're going to have a strong one. Overall, this strikes me as a very impressive and convincing campaign slogan.
So what is the slogan of her opponent, Mr. Harvey?
"Kevin Harvey. For Mayor. For Salem!"
That's it. Doesn't this come across as a guy kind of stuttering to get his words out? "Hi, I'm Kevin Harvey. For mayor. Uh, for Salem. For Mayor of Salem. For Salem's Mayor. I mean, I'm running for Mayor of, I mean for, Salem!" Of course, I think the attempt was to make a kind of rah-rah cry out of the "For Salem!" with the exclamation point, but even that, to me, just comes across as a kind of mindless, adolescent outburst: "I'm for Salem! Who's with me?! Yayyy!!"
To top this all off, Ms. Driscoll's posters and signs all carry a photograph of her smiling face on them. Maybe I'm wrong, but this strikes me as highly unusual, especially in a local campaign. But the fact is that Ms. Driscoll is, well, kinda cute. It's hard to escape the suspicion that this observation was not lost on her campaign staff, and they decided to go with their strength, and put her pretty face out there for the (shallow) public to see, reinforcing their subconcious attraction to her. In the context of a one-on-one matchup, this strategy also has the unavoidable side-effect, I imagine, of raising further doubts about her challenger. ("How come we don't get to see what HE looks like? He sure must be one ugly bastard!")
We'll see by tonight if any of my outsider observations hold water. I haven't read any polls, have no idea about their qualifications or background or positions on issues. But I'm betting it's Kim Driscoll in a landslide.