Former tabloid big Bonnie Fuller notes that Camp Obama is using popular mass-media vehicles such as People, Us Weekly, The View, Access Hollywood and The Colbert Report to “present Michelle and Barack as the beloved Brangelina of the political world.” Regular pw readers will recall that Dan and I took note of the Us Weekly cover.
This strategy is worth viewing in the context of Jay Cost’s argument that the portrayal of Obama as a Messiaianic figure reinforces the perception of many that he is aloof and distant from the concerns of ordinary Americans. Fuller notes the impact of the tabloid press among women in particular:
Women come to feel so close to celebrities, they almost consider them part of their circle of friends. More than 60 million women a week now read the enormously influential glossies, and one of their biggest appeals are the “Stars Are Just Like Us”-style features — those regularly featured photographs of stars going about their everyday lives.
Celebrity weeklies have successfully enhanced the appeal of Hollywood stars, not only by glamorizing them but by humanizing them as well.
The fact that they shop at the supermarket, pick up their own dry cleaning and play with their kids in the park just makes Brad, Angie, Jen Garner, Reese Witherspoon, Kate Hudson and the rest of the cast of A-list characters all the more likable.
If humanizing celebrities sells magazines and movie tickets, why wouldn’t some “Obamas are just like us” stories help make voters feel more familiar and comfortable with the Obamas?
Conversely, the current culture is also big on reality programming that celebrifies more ordinary people.
The Oprahfication of the Obamas would be a way for the campaign to move away from the more creepy cult-like tendencies of some of his backers, yet synthesize the competing images his campaign has been presenting. In the context of the 16-year cycle of “change” elections occasionally mentioned here, the Kennedys tended to be marketed as celebrities, whereas Carter and Clinton generally tried to market themselves as in touch with the common folk (Bill Clinton’s turn playing sax on the Arsenio Hall Show being a notable exception). The tabloid strategy suggests that the Obamas are betting that in today’s celebrity-drenched culture, they can have it both ways.
(h/t Memeorandum.)
Comment by Minister Jack X Klompus Africa-Muhammad on 7/28 @ 3:38 pm #
I don’t know about the others mentioned, but US Weekly is owned by the Wenner Media empire and ol’ Jan is definitely in the “Thrill Up the Leg” Obama Militia.
Comment by happyfeet on 7/28 @ 3:39 pm #
That People cover looks too That’s So Baracky Disney Channel sitcom familyish I think.
Comment by Carin on 7/28 @ 3:42 pm #
Don’t make me remind ya’ll that there is no media bias.
Comment by Rob Crawford on 7/28 @ 4:01 pm #
There was no derision in Karl’s post. Just observation and conclusions.
Comment by Ouroboros on 7/28 @ 4:09 pm #
If O! wants to clinch this election he’ll publically dump Michelle .. Marry Scarlett Johansen after a whirlwind 3 day romance and adopt a whole bunch of third world babies . Iraqi perhaps.. as Michelle publically melts down, broken hearted and has to be locked up at the Betty Ford Clinic for Depression and Drug Addiction..
Comment by Ric Locke on 7/28 @ 4:09 pm #
thor, let me simplify your life a bit.
Any mention of Barack Obama which is less than a full-throated, effusive compliment constitutes a “deride at all costs” strategy, and since Karl occasionally makes such mention, it can only because he is ignorant of the Light that is Obama.
There. Whenever you feel moved to comment, just cut and paste the italicized part. It’ll save you all that typing.
Regards,
Ric
Comment by Ouroboros on 7/28 @ 4:12 pm #
Hey, on a pop culture note.. Has Obama been featured on South Park like Hilldog’s Sniz was ?
Comment by dre on 7/28 @ 4:14 pm #
“select observations and false conclusions ”
Fact: O! is an Ivy League educated Liberal idiot;
Fact: O! was a Communist Organizer;
Fact: O! served one term in Il and had any accomplishment he accrued handed to him.
Fact: O! hasn’t done one damn thing in his life that makes him qualified to do anything but be a politician
Comment by Terrye on 7/28 @ 4:21 pm #
Barack is on the cover of the Rolling Stone. Really.
Comment by Karl on 7/28 @ 4:23 pm #
What is Comment Spam?
Pitiful Time Wasters are comment spam and will now be treated accordingly.
Comment by happyfeet on 7/28 @ 4:30 pm #
But no, for real, that image they’re cultivating is not “relatable family” … it’s “perfect family” … it’s really sort of distancey, like the guy says, more than relatable. At least I’d venture that trying to foist this idealized image shows that he’s a lot taking the african-american vote for granted, cause don’t tell me that that’s anywhere near “relatable.” Gack. These are those people we have on our fridge at Christmas time. The ones where you ask mom and she’ll tell you the real deal about those people. And then you laugh at their dorky matching sweaters and say but hey that’s a beautiful dog.
Comment by Karl on 7/28 @ 4:32 pm #
hf,
I totally got it the first time, but laughed both times, so thank you.
Comment by cranky-d on 7/28 @ 4:43 pm #
The PTWs are going to have to find a new hobby I suppose.
Comment by Lesley on 7/28 @ 5:07 pm #
“Barack Obama does not have a dog. He has said in his presidential campaign that, “As a condition for letting me run for President, my daughters Malia and Sasha extracted a promise from Michelle and I that they could get a dog after the election, win or lose. So they’re heavily invested in this campaign, if only for it to be over so we can get our dog.” Does Barack Obama Have A Dog
Happy Feet: the Obama’s will have an even better Christmas card next year with their “hey, that’s a beautiful dog.”
“Extracted a promise from Michelle and I” – should that constitute a grammar alert?
Comment by SevenEleventy on 7/28 @ 5:09 pm #
O! has to watch out for overexposure. The meida is a double-edged sword(look what they did to Hillary). IMHO, if Team Obama™ is smart, they’ll use their money on commercials throughout the summer, stick to broad policy speeches, avoiding one-on-one interviews, and coast to the convention.
After the convention, he can check the polls, and if the numbers are favorable, insist on an O! friendly debate format. Two or three lengthy debates, a couple of soft interviews(ala Larry King), and a photo-op taking his children out trick-or-treating on Halloween will pretty much do it.
I hate writing this, but unless Senator McCain can get his campaign rolling, I don’t see him winning. I saw the report regarding McCain up by 4 points in the Gallup/USA Today poll, but I don’t put much stock in silly season polls. Hopefully, he’ll choose an economy savvy VP, who can articulate a growth oriented, revenue generating economic policy to try and offset the $490 billion dollar budget deficit numbers released today. It would be nice if I could be more positive, but I’m less than inspired by McDole’s performance.
Comment by Minister Jack X Klompus Africa-Muhammad-Ali on 7/28 @ 5:13 pm #
I so hope Obama gets caught in a coke-laden threesome with Madonna and A-Rod.
Comment by happyfeet on 7/28 @ 5:25 pm #
I think McCain’s doing fine being not-Obama. Also he wants to let us drill for oil and that’s… it touches me. It really does.
Comment by SevenEleventy on 7/28 @ 5:28 pm #
I so hope Obama gets caught in a coke-laden threesome with Madonna and A-Rod.
Minister Jack, I finally get serious, and you piss all over my comment. I refuse to be your thread lamb cannon! Hopefully, someone will splice it with the Michelle O! “whitey” tape, because things go better with Coke™, and product placement is key.
Comment by LionDude on 7/28 @ 5:30 pm #
Terrye,
Actually, that’s two Rolling Stale covers for Barry over the last couple of months. Jann Wenner needed additional cover copies so he could wallpaper the rest of his private jets. Or make more scrapbooks.
Still wondering when the irony will dawn on ol’ Jann that his so-called champion-of-the-counterculture magazine has been fully entrenched in the mainstream media political echo chamber for some time now.
Great article about Rush in the most recent Barry cover issue, however.
Comment by Spies, Brigands, and Pirates on 7/28 @ 5:35 pm #
the irony will dawn on ol’ Jann that his so-called champion-of-the-counterculture magazine
Oh, Wenner’s well aware of that. Taking the tropes of the “counterculture” and repackaging them in a manner inoffensive to advertisers is his entire business model, and has been since day one.
Nowadays, of course, he aims at the senile hippie demographic who wants to believe (despite all the evidence to the contrary) that they’re still on the bleeding edge of culture.
Comment by kelly on 7/28 @ 5:38 pm #
How old is Wenner these days? Five, six years younger than JohnnyMac?
Yeah, I thought so.
Comment by Carin on 7/28 @ 5:48 pm #
My mom and sister still get Rolling Stone, so I picked it up to read at one of my visits hoping for some elucidation (get this) NEW music. I thought Rolling Stone was edgy … hip. It would -if I could contain my bile to pass the political aritcle – review and present new artists to expand my listening pleasure. I mean, occasionally I can listen to something other than Tool and QOTSA. Theoretically.
Boy was I wrong of RS. It celebrates the icons of the established music industry (Madonna, for example) and Rap. What a piece of useless garbage.
Comment by Carin on 7/28 @ 5:48 pm #
Ignore my typos. Food coma.
Comment by Beldar on 7/28 @ 5:56 pm #
It’s a low bar to jump, but I give the Obamas credit for being married before having their children. Jolie and Pitt aren’t, and that sets an unforgivably bad example. Pitt should be horsewhipped.
Comment by LionDude on 7/28 @ 6:22 pm #
Outstanding point, SB&P.
Carin, like you said, the music coverage is even worse. The album reviews are a littany of tossed-off 3.5 star flowery flattery, with the only potshots taken at the easiest teenybopper targets. Lester Bangs was dead-on when he said the magazine was “shit”. And yet I’ve been a subscriber for 20 years.
Comment by Karl on 7/28 @ 6:39 pm #
It is a small regret on my part that I can no longer find an alt-weekly article I clipped compiling the Rolling Stone reviews for any number of seminal albums — all completely wrong.
Most of the music I cover at my other gig is softer than Tool or QotSA, but Carin might want to check out Mastadon.
Comment by happyfeet on 7/28 @ 6:44 pm #
I don’t respect people I see reading People though. Not at all really. Is that judgey?
Comment by Spies, Brigands, and Pirates on 7/28 @ 6:51 pm #
People,
People who read People,
Are the dullest people in the world
Were children reading Highlights for Children
And not letting their grown-up pride
Hide the blandness inside
Acting more like children than children…
Comment by happyfeet on 7/28 @ 6:54 pm #
oh. I love the finding the hidden pictures part… that was always on the back page and when they got rid of it mom canceled the subscription for her first graders, the rest of it had gotten so dumb
nice work there Spies
Comment by Spies, Brigands, and Pirates on 7/28 @ 6:58 pm #
I always took Goofus as a role model, myself.
Comment by Spies, Brigands, and Pirates on 7/28 @ 7:03 pm #
And what the FUCK was up with that creepy-assed Timbertoes bunch?
Comment by ccoffer on 7/28 @ 7:07 pm #
Methinks the celebrity thing is only worth so much. This spectacle is becoming more creepy than endearing. Even leftists are becoming nauseated at the sight of this incompetent token being treated like the 5th fucking Beatle.
Comment by Carin on 7/28 @ 7:12 pm #
Ok, I’ll admit it. When I wait in the doctor’s office, I read their “People” magazines. I don’t go to the doc’s often, so I usually have plenty to choose from: an edition from last year? NO problem. It’s all new to me.
Comment by Spies, Brigands, and Pirates on 7/28 @ 7:15 pm #
Carin: that was the only place I ever read Highlights when I was a kid, as it happens.
Anything to take my mind off the looming tetanus shot or blood draw.
Comment by Karl on 7/28 @ 7:16 pm #
ccoffer,
The celebrity thing works better if the Obamas can shed the Messianic thing, though.
Comment by Karl on 7/28 @ 7:20 pm #
Also, for my other gig, I link to a lot of stuff from People and the like. But mostly to mock. And that is the unexplored flip side of the strategy here. Although I think the timeframe here is short enough that Camp O! can exploit the celeb press without it turning on them, Bonnie Fuller’s background and connections are such that she is not going to talk about the way in which the paparazzi cuts celebs down to size and removes their mystique can hurt their careers in the longer-term.
Comment by ccoffer on 7/28 @ 7:21 pm #
Perhaps, Karl, but it carries most of it’s weight with people who don’t vote. Hell, the entertainment industry had its collective head up Bill Clinton’s degenerate asshole both times he ran and it only got him 40sumpm’ percent.
Comment by Spies, Brigands, and Pirates on 7/28 @ 7:23 pm #
The Timbertoes.
Alternate storyline:
1) I am Pa Timbertoes.
2) Here is the mummified corpse of Ma Timbertoes, who died several years ago.
3) We are made of wood, although the psychiatrist keeps trying to convince me that’s just the schizophrenia talking.
4) Long ago we wanted a house that didn’t have mattresses attached to the walls, where the chairs didn’t have straps on the arms, and where the bounty hunters weren’t likely to find us.
5) I made the house out of the wooden flesh of my kin. It still shrieks in agony when I open the door. I smile, thinking of my relatives roasting in hell.
6) After killing all the kinfolk, we were lonesome.
7) I cut off the head of a boy I abducted from the bus stop.
8) I stuffed him and named him Tommy.
9) Then I stuffed a girl. I called her Mabel.
10) I hope the local farmers don’t figure out who has been killing and mutilating their animals.
11) We are a happy family. We will be together for ever, and ever, and ever.
12) Happy Holidays to all!
Comment by Karl on 7/28 @ 7:31 pm #
ccoffer,
There’s adifference between having H’wood support and the candidate’s overall marketing. For all of his showbiz pals, Bill always tried to sell himself as the humble Man From Hope. Obama’s bio ad similarly stresses his Kansas birth, etc. But he keeps falling into the trap of also trying to sell himself as Great Man of History. Inasmuch as Obama is neither Joe Sixpack nor Great Man of History (at least, not yet), quasi-normal celebrity like JFK might be his best image.
Comment by ccoffer on 7/28 @ 8:03 pm #
When I use the term “entertainment industry”, Karl, I’m not talking about the Hollywood crowd exclusively. I am referring to the entire gaggle of feckless twits who create information media. Hell, infomercials are more objective than the average “news” show these days. Its not just Hollywood. hell, I expect the friggen Food Network to come out for Obama any day now.
All I’m saying is that it takes some degree of substance, and Obama has none. He makes John Kerry look like a genius. Maybe I’m wrong, but I don’t think I am.
Best,
Chuck
p.s. JFK had an actual record of achievements. He wasn’t just dressed up, given some lines and put on stage. While its true the “news” types of that day had raging boners for the guy, he wasn’t simply a made up character like Obama is.
Comment by Great Mencken's Ghost! on 7/28 @ 8:47 pm #
Hm. I always saw the Obama’s as the Federline-Spears.
Comment by Spies, Brigands, and Pirates on 7/28 @ 8:58 pm #
Or the Barr-Arnolds.
Comment by The Lost Dog on 7/28 @ 9:41 pm #
Do you think Sarah Roemer is a “Barraky” chick?
My goodness, does she ever make me feel like Grampaw.
Somewtimes I think that maybe I shouldn’t wake up tomorrow. But then I am hit with the fact that if I didn’t, I might miss something really cool!
How my hopes have eroded!
Comment by Karl on 7/28 @ 11:36 pm #
#40: ccoffer,
Obvs I’m not comparing O! and JFK on substance. This post is limited to image. And on that limited topic, I’m suggesting that the celebrity image may work for the Obamas because it is closer to the reality than either (a) Man of the People or (b) Messiah. And it’s fairly obvious these days that one need not have substance to be a celebrity.
Comment by TheGeezer on 7/29 @ 6:07 am #
hf, I hope you make money with stuff like this.
Pingback by Calculated celebrification on 7/29 @ 6:36 am #
[...] Obama’s not entirely sneaky strategy to get the female vote. [...]
Comment by Mikey NTH on 7/29 @ 7:38 am #
They may be Brangelina now, but they better pray that they do not quickly turn into Bennifer.
Comment by afall on 7/29 @ 7:42 am #
“People, Us Weekly, The View, Access Hollywood and The Colbert Report ”
That’s an odd lineup.
Comment by Pablo on 7/29 @ 11:07 am #
Some who do what, thor?
Comment by thor on 7/29 @ 2:26 pm #
From the land of the some-who-do, comes Obama Barack, he’s no censor-that-which-make-me-cry agggggfff.
O!
If you’d read Brodsky then you’d know corruption of truth values leads to self-imploding societies, Comrad Lamont. Mnya darug cencor, eto apparatchiKK!
Pingback by He Said, She Said [Dan Collins] on 7/30 @ 7:46 am #
[...] Malkin posts today on The Brangelina-fication of the Obamas, a couple days after Karl did. Posted by Dan Collins @ 7:44 am | Trackback SHARETHIS.addEntry({ title: “He Said, She Said [Dan [...]
Comment by Pablo on 7/30 @ 9:37 am #
Given your repeated pronouncements about the wonderful, dominating things President Mandingo will do with his HopeShaft, do you really find that surprising?