UC Berkeley

Packaging Politics

by Catherine Suzanne Galloway

Doctor of Philosophy in Political Science

University of California, Berkeley

Professor Jack Citrin, Chair

The United States, with its early consumerist orientation, has a lengthy history of drawing on similar techniques to influence popular opinion about political issues and candidates as are used by businesses to market their wares to consumers. Packaging Politics looks at how the rise of consumer culture over the past 60 years has influenced presidential campaigning and political culture more broadly.

Drawing on interviews with political consultants, political reporters, marketing experts and communications scholars, Packaging Politics explores the formal and informal ways that commercial marketing methods - specifically emotional and open source branding and micro and behavioral targeting - have migrated to the political realm, and how they play out in campaigns, specifically in presidential races.

Heading into the 2012 elections, how much truth is there to the notion that selling politicians is like "selling soap"? What is the difference today between citizens and consumers? And how is the political process being transformed, for better or for worse, by the use of increasingly sophisticated marketing techniques?