American campaign cola shows cultural differences...

An American manufacturer of soft drinks has decided to contribute to the tumult surrounding the presidential nominations by allowing customers to sate their thirsts via candidate inspired packaging. Though some would call the ploy nothing more than a cyncial cash-in on the world of current events (though not current enough to take Hillary out of the race), other commentators have gone so far as to call it a brilliant and inspiring display of viral marketing. Hmmm...

Though we're not particularly interested in the merchandise itself, what Westmonster does find quite interesting is that Americans seem to buy into this kind of thing with a fervour that we could never imagine in the UK. But, why? What is it about U.S. culture that inspires people to turn their political figures into commodities? Or, more importantly, what is it about the UK that inspires us not to?

The chances of a UK drinks company producing, say, a David Cameron or Gordon Brown flavour of cola and having people actually buy into the idea (except for maybe some semi-ironic student or misses-uni type) seems about as likely as a Tory reusing a teabag - and not just because of the flatness that they'd have to ensure for verisimilitude. Indeed, if manufacturer's thought that anybody would bother to purchase such products they probably would do, which can only mean that the difference is between those that make up the market.

Perhaps the difference can be attributed to the glamour of the American political scene, which has attempted to inject itself with some of the glamour and glitz of Hollywood ever since the days of JFK. The majority of merchandise produced outside of the Obama, Clinton, or McCain camps in the run up to this years presidential nominations has taken the same form as that from blockbuster movies: t-shirts, key rings, posters, nut crackers, and now cola endorsements. This kind of product association helps to place politicians within the cultural framework. But why can't we do that too?

The real difference seems to be that whereas the Americans vote for people that they feel they have chosen, the majority of UK residents seem to feel that they have less of a choice. Whereas the Americans will openly fight out in the open, regardless of whether or not they are in the same party or not, UK politicians will essentially form less divisive groups because they've all known each other since the went to Oxford or wherever together. It essentially means that whereas American politicians can sell themselves on individuality, ours are all just as dull as each other. Products like this can only sell if their is a distinct line between the individual natures of each candidate, which perhaps suggest that where UK politicians choose to sell themselves on policy, their American cousins do so on personality.

Barack Obama's We Can Do It Cola is currently outselling that of his rivals...

Written by Oli Anderson on 12 Jun 2008 2:49 PM. Permalink