Forget Hope: Obama Shops Slogan Change for 2012

Incumbency, economy changes 'Change' message
By Mark Russell,  Newser Staff
Posted Feb 19, 2012 5:30 AM CST
Forget Hope: Obama Shops Slogan Change for 2012
President Barack Obama walks off of the stage after speaking at a fundraiser in Bellevue, Wash., Friday, Feb. 17, 2012. Obama is on a three-day trip to the West Coast.   (AP Photo/Susan Walsh)

After four years in office and facing continued unemployment and a weak economy—albeit with some signs of life—"Change we can believe in" just isn't going to cut it anymore. So the Obama campaign team is on the hunt of a new slogan, reports Reuters. Some of the ideas being tossed around now: Winning The Future; Greater Together; We Don't Quit. In an attempt at continuity, President Obama is emphasizing changes he's already made, but he also talks about the need for determination and fairness. "Inspiration is wonderful, nice speeches are wonderful, pretty posters, that's great," said Obama at a fundraiser last week. "But what's required at the end of the day to create the kind of country we want is stick-to-it-ness. It's determination. It's saying, 'We don't quit.'"

"Change was a brutally simple idea," said one marketing exec. "Telling that story is more difficult than telling a 'change' story because you have to define fairness for who, and what's unfair, and why is fairness important." But whatever the Obama camp picks, don't expect to see it before the Republicans settle on a candidate—election themes for a Rick Santorum candidacy would probably be very different than with Mitt Romney. Ronald Reagan's "Morning in America" slogan "communicated this notion that Reagan had declared success and now it was time to celebrate a new day in America and give Reagan four more years to complete the task," said a branding expert. "Obama could benefit from something in a similar vein." (More President Obama stories.)

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