With the rest of the World, like other times, I followed the
recent US Presidential campaign. To me the only difference between the 2020
election campaign and previous all other elections was that this time I am looking
at the campaign through my PR student glass. This year I got the opportunity to
analyze the election campaign armed with the newly gained PR knowledge that I
was learning in class.
Every presidential election is a platform for showcasing public
relations through the political strategies that the candidates undertake.
However, 2020 election campaign took PR to a completely new level because of
the ongoing COVID 19 pandemic. The pandemic significantly changed campaign
strategies of the candidates like it changed everyday life of the population.
While watching the campaign I gathered that a PR campaign for
a political candidate is not that different from a campaign to sell a product or
brand. Here is what the US Presidential campaign taught me about the PR studies
that I was learning in class:
Key messages and slogans: This is the message that you (the PR practitioner) want your target
audience to hear and remember. This message allows you to communicate the
aspect of your product and business that you want your consumer to remember. We
were taught in class that this message is used repeatedly throughout the communication
campaign. Both candidates used these key messages in their speeches, and
interviews to let the voters know about their main points of the campaigns.
- Make America Great Again.
- Promises made, promises kept.
Joe Biden:
- Battle For The Soul of The Nation.
- Our Best Days Still Lie Ahead.
- Build Back Better Than Ever.
- America Is An Idea.
Media training – avoiding ‘No comment’: Media interview is an effective PR tool. Communicating with the media and
voters through the interviews give the candidates opportunities to send the key
messages to the target audiences. Political candidates take media training by veteran
journalists. Through these trainings candidates learn how to do media interviews
effectively. One significant aspect of these trainings is to learn how to respond
honestly to difficult questions from the media yet avoiding replying ‘no
comment’.
Media relations: Media
relations is one of the core activities that public relations professionals do daily.
In order to educate the public on how to choose, buy or use products and
services, and motivating them to take the preferred action PR professionals
work continuously to establish a good image of their clients. Establishing a
good image also helps to lessen the damage when crisis hits. In the US election
campaign, we also saw the candidates’ communication teams working with the
media to get publicity (good or bad) that benefits their presidential candidate.
While Joe Biden’s team maintained a strong relation with liberal media to portray
a positive image bad publicity often defined Donald Trump’s attention-grabbing
campaign.
Online presence through social media and digital communication: We have learned in our course that the effective use of social media is
an important PR strategy. PR practitioners use the social media platforms to
get the message out in an appealing manner that in return drives immediate
sales. Since the 2008 US election social media has been playing a big role in
US presidential election as well. In 2020 election Joe Biden’s campaign used
social media efficiently throughout the campaign. They often used humour in
tweets and other social media posts to help it going viral. One good example is
efficient use of the incident where a fly landed on Mike Pence’s head during
the vice-presidential campaign. Within minutes after the event Biden campaign
posted a photo of a fly swatter with the slogan “Truth Over Flies” to raise
fund for the campaign and 35,000 swatters was sold out within minutes.
On the other hand, Trump social media ads were targeted to attack Biden
personally. Often the ads were misleading and were written with inaccurate
claims about Covid 19 and immigration. Facebook as a result removed dozens of
the Donald Trump campaign ads.
Political campaigning, like businesses, in many cases is about
communicating its messages with its target audiences.
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