Marketing the Person of the Year (2008)

So while TIME MAGAZINE has just named President Elect, Barack Obama 2008’s Person of the Year, and Shepard Fairey’s artwork graces the cover internationally, a few of us are still wondering who was working in the background to make him look so… well, stunning.

On Wednesday, TIME Magazine named Barack Obama its 2008 “Person of the Year.”   The issue marked December 29th, 2008 hits stores today.

Aside from all the hype, we must begin to look at the bigger questions like, who was behind the hype?  We all know Obama was the original hype-man in every sense of the word, but who were his henchman, who helped make history?

VSA partners (Chicago) was the agency that developed Obama’s campaign logo.  A team of three including strategist, Sol Sender took on the project last year, and finalized a logo that would soon follow Barack Obama around the world and into the white house.  

VSA partners offers a video released this month, upon the hiring of Sol Sender to detail exactly how the project was managed.  Both parts together are about 13 minutes long.
Click to watch:  PART 1. PART 2.

Some of the designs mentioned in the video:

In 2004 and 2000 I can remember analyzing the font choices from each candidate, the colors, and each message typically had a piece of clip art attached in some form whether it be a flag, or a star.  Now I’ve heard this campaign logo become the butt of a few jokes, but like Obama, this design is full of win.  Before this election, a candidate has never used such strong imagery or go so far as to design a logo for their campaign to run with.  Stickers, signs, and buttons have always been traditionally used, but this breed is different.  Have you ever seen a candidate launch a social network?  Neither have I, nor has anyone for that matter.  Now take a visit to my.barackobama.com  if you haven’t yet, and get used to it.  

It seems that with the help from this campaign logo this year we have broken from the mundane order of politics in this country.  More importantly whether anyone has realized it or not, we’ve also just accepted candidate branding.  Or better yet, government branding.  The world is changing people!

Remember: Marketing is Power.