Barack Obama attempts to channel his inner Madonna

photo courtesy of MusicRooms.net


Have you ever watched a musician or a politician try to change their persona? It seems that for every tour or campaign, they’re reinvented in a way that makes us take another look.

Move over Madonna! Get ready for Obama’s Reinvention Tour.

Obama released his first 2012 campaign commercial this week, suspiciously lacking his appearance on camera and letting common, everyday people do all the talking. Even his campaign logo is recycled (as if Amercians haven’t developed an aversion to that ridiculous somewhere-over-the-rainbow, Pepsi can image!)

Public images can change because they are often artificial. But unless you change at the core, you are what you are to a great extent. And what you are is what comes through in both words and actions. If you try to manipulate that, you might succeed in creating a brand, but is it real? Of course not.

Obama is setting out to rebrand his image a little over half way through his term as president. When a rock star or a politician changes their image, they want us to “forget” what went before. That kind of reinvention isn’t growth, it’s changing clothes. Andrew Klavan does a brilliant job of making this point in his video, Barack the Magic Suit, A Political Fairy Tale:



Marketing genius can only carry you so far…before it reeks of desperation. Obama is desperate to make the American people forget his empty suit promises of the 2008 election.

As individuals, our personal relationships are built on authenticity and trust. We can’t get away with shallow rebranding. Conservatives have always known that Obama lacks the qualities deserving of a leader. Now, he is simply rearranging his words and attempting to reinvent himself as the leader we never had.

Just like Madonna, the public image is superficial and it’s all showmanship.