This week’s “Daily Journal” guest columnist is Jana Dunkley, Program Assistant for the John Locke Foundation.
Selecting a campaign logo is like trademarking for presidential candidates. Campaign logos can be to Barack Obama and John McCain what the bitten apple is to Macintosh: a creative and unique logo most Americans recognize instantly. As an individual with an interest in art and aesthetics, I have naturally analyzed the meaning and symbolism behind each candidate’s campaign art from the beginning. Well-designed logos, campaign posters, and bumper stickers are a form of art that can portray the entire theme of a candidate’s campaign and send a powerful message to voters.
Obama’s circular logo resembles an illuminating sun in a blue sky rising behind a red hill. The red stripes curve like an American flag that is flowing in the wind. Looking closely at the graphic, I can imagine the red and white stripes as rows of crops on a southern farm or the rolling foothills of the Appalachian Mountains. Red, white, and blue are the only colors used in the graphic, portraying a patriotic spirit. The rising sun logo does what good art should do; it sends a message to the viewer. The message is one of hope, change, and new beginnings. Obama’s logo and his slogan, hope for America, both send promises of a new day in America.
The younger generation is proving to be powerful Obama supporters. For this reason, Obama has a large number of pop art campaign posters that display a more counterculture and artistic appeal than campaign art of the past. Many Obama posters mimic the pop art style of Andy Warhol, a favorite artist among many younger adults. Most are familiar with Warhol’s colorful representation of Marilyn Monroe, the Campbell’s soup can, and Coca-Cola bottles. His work focused on recreating iconic American symbols using illustrations and loose, blotted ink. In Obama’s pop-art poster his head is slightly tilted, and his eyes are gazing as if he is deep in thought. Blotted ink is used to create a patriotic illustration of Obama’s momentous expression. Variations of the same graphic appear again, sometimes in black and white, other times in more colorful, bold forms. By using a form of art that is recognized by mass popular culture, a young senator appears to be an experienced and intelligent American idol.
McCain presents himself as a maverick, an individual who has fought against corruption and for change in the Republican Party. The McCain campaign slogan is Country First: Reform, Prosperity, Peace. The campaign logo is a star placed in the center of a pointed line. The graphic is simple and clean, but overwhelmingly bland and generic. His slogan is a message of America’s need for unity and strength in a time of economic and political struggle, but the star and line do little to represent unity. In my opinion, a star represents a single state in the union, not a united country.
McCain’s logo emphasizes the text rather than the graphic. McCain’s name is written in an Optima typeface, a contemporary sans serif font designed by a German type designer in the late 1950s, especially popular in books and magazines published in the 1970s. The same type font is used to display the veteran names on Maya Lin’s Vietnam Veterans Memorial. Considering McCain’s military history, the Optima typeface is a subtle reminder of his heroic prisoner-of-war experience.
Signs with the McCain logo are placed sporadically in my neighborhood. However, I rarely see any unique McCain posters in or outside the places I frequently visit. Perhaps it is the loss of conservative grassroots activism. Maybe it is because younger progressives dominate my neighborhood. It could be because the McCain campaign has no interest in trying to reach voters through art. I believe it is partially due to the idea that Obama’s campaign is using a form of guerrilla marketing tactics, an aggressive and unconventional method of marketing to promote their message.
Shepard Fairey is the famous artist responsible for Obama’s hope, progress, and change posters. He is also well-known for his work with the “Obey Giant” campaign, which uses propaganda and thought-provoking images to stimulate curiosity and questioning of one’s surroundings. The “Obey Giant” campaign is founded upon the idea that the medium is the message and uses guerrilla marketing tactics to promote its work. What makes me uncomfortable is the striking resemblance Fairey’s pop art posters have to graphics associated with the famous Marxist Che Guevara. In Fairey’s poster Obama is not wearing a beret, but his face tilts left at the same angle as Che’s face. Both Che and Obama have a strong jaw portraying strength and an upward gaze of determination and hope. It seems the Obama campaign is silently portraying Obama as a socialist revolutionary.
On Nov. 4, I will not base my presidential vote on the best of trademarks and campaign poster art; however, I will argue the Obama campaign has symbolic and thought-provoking images that appeal to a younger, more artistic audience. He uses his campaign logo and poster art to spread his campaign message silently. If McCain wanted to generate the same youthful interest, a more creative, evocative logo and the use of campaign poster art could catch the attention of more individuals. Even though the Obama posters might be considered propaganda, at least his face is plastered all over America for voters to see. McCain might be out of sight and out of mind for some voters.