Burnsmarketing.com
As we were watching history being made last night, we couldn't help but notice the two very similar campaign slogans that graced the screen.
During his victory speech, Senator Barack Obama's supporters waved banners sporting the message his entire campaign is based on – "Change we can believe in." Obama has positioned himself over the last year-and-a-half as the change candidate, and most likely, this message played a critical role in helping him secure the nomination.
Then the broadcast moved on to cover John McCain's speech. And we see the senator with the words "A leader we can believe in" prominently placed on the green backdrop behind him. To emphasize his experience, McCain used the same slogan – only slightly modified.
Regardless of which side of the aisle you fall on, we think this poses an interesting question. Is McCain's new slogan a shrewd marketing move or an example of an utter lack of creativity? What do you think?
Seriously though, I'd say McCain is trying to confuse people. I think he's hoping that people will get the two campaigns messages mixed up (even though they're very different) since the keyword most people probably remember is change from either slogan. I think McCain wants a little Obama magic to rub off on him and maybe he's even trying to undermine Obama's central message of change. I can just imagine a debate where Obama talks about change and McCain goes "Yeah, I'm about change too; see, it's in my slogan". Either that or McCain's ad people are hopelessly out of touch.