The Death of the Republican Brand
May 20th, 2008 | Published in Branding
Republican Party leaders have been flipping around like fish out of water trying to identify possible remedies to their 2006 mid-term election losses. Their most recent effort, a new national Congressional campaign slogan, “The Change You Deserve,” was quickly identified as the advertising tag line for the anti-depressant Effexor. Ouch.
But the biggest Republican problem seems that many of their leaders don’t realize the dire straits they are in. One that does is Rep. Tom Davis (R-VA). He recently said that Bush had just “killed the Republican brand” and “if we were a dog food [Republicans], they would take us off the shelf.”
In the last 90s when I lived on Capital Hill in DC and worked in Northern Virginia I had a couple chances to speak with Davis. Although I did’t agree with many of his positions, he listened and give direct and candid responses to my questions, such as the status of DC Statehood (he was Chairmen of the Committee). He told me what he thought and not what I wanted to hear in every instance. It would seem he is doing the same to his fellow party members. I wonder if they will listen.
