Branding the Candidates

This morning while surfing the net I saw an interesting story taken from a recent CNN broadcast of Election Center. In it an expert came in to discuss the branding of each presidential nominee and based it on the typeface that each is using in their logo.

Here we have the logo for Hillary Clinton’s campaign. The expert stated that the typeface, which he identified as being a form of Baskerville, was bold, assertive, and in-control. He even went so far as to call it a little relentless. But in an interesting move it is her first name on the logo and not her last. CNN’s expert said that this lends an air of familiarity to her while possibly maintaining an idea of solidarity.

Next we have the logo for the John McCain campaign. The expert identified the typeface as somewhere between serif and sans-serif. Based on that alone the expert stated that he thought McCain and his campaign didn’t put nearly as much time into the choice as those in Clinton’s campaign did. Instead it appeared to be a quick choice, which may translate to voters who see it that they may not actually know who he is or what kind of a president he hopes to be.

Finally we have the current logo for Barack Obama’s campaign. I say recently because as Obama started to pick up steam the logo changed. Originally it was his last name with the O capitalized and the rest in lower case letters. The campaign recently kept the same classic, old-fashioned Roman typeface but changed it to caps and small caps instead of using lower case letters. CNN’s expert thought that this typeface communicated a feeling of elegance and sweetness to the candidate, and thought it was the typeface that could be considered the most presidential.

I must say that listening to this story, and how the campaigns are attempting to brand each of the candidates, was a fascinating one. I truly wonder if the opinions of this “expert” really do hold true to the opinions of the American public.