Helen Caldicott: Ads Sell Politics
on Wednesday, August 7, 2019Helen Caldicott Money Quote saying we expect to be sold a politician with slick ads created by image creators at advertising firms who use the same techniques on grocery items. Helen Caldicott said:
“Politics is not really politics any more. It is run, for the most part, by Madison Avenue advertising firms, who sell politicians to the public the way they sell bars of soap or cans of beer” — Helen Caldicott
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In this quote, Helen Caldicott seems to be criticizing the influence of public relations, advertising and marketing on modern politics. She suggests that politics has become more about image, branding and persuasion techniques than substantive policy or values-based debates.
By saying politics is “run, for the most part, by Madison Avenue advertising firms”, she implies political campaigns rely heavily on strategies borrowed from commercial advertising – portraying candidates like products to be sold through emotional appeals and manipulation of public perception rather than on the merits of their ideas or positions.
Caldicott views politicians as having become commodities that these firms “sell to the public” in much the same way companies sell consumer goods, focusing more on perception than reality. Her view is that politics has come to prioritize PR techniques over true political discourse or leadership.