Abusing marketing

Marketing, when done ethically, creates value to society by understanding and educating customers. The advisers to the politicians and political candidates and the news media, at times, focus more on selling the candidate. In this process they are either silent participants or active workers in the effort to keep the public ignorant, fearful, and hateful.

Here is one example, where the writer is offering "suggestions" to the politicians to "sell" themselves.

Christine O'Donnell: three ways she could turn things around tonight - CSMonitor.com: "Everybody’s heard all those stories about witchcraft dabbling, and so forth, but Wednesday night will be O’Donnell’s first and best chance to introduce herself to Delaware voters unfiltered. If her ads are any indication, she will continue to say of herself, “I’m you” – as in, “I’m a regular Delawarean.” This approach would be helped by lots of references to regular-person stuff, like struggles with money and her nonownership of any Ivy League degrees. (Coons has two from Yale.)

If unfortunate past statements come up, don’t get defensive. Just sigh, and say that everybody did stuff in their youth that they regret later. To an adult, what’s adolescence but a foreign country?

In her modified limited media rollout of recent days, in which she’s sat down for interviews with mainly local reporters, O’Donnell has done pretty well with this approach."