The Oxygen of Publicity
By: Robert Sterner
Tags: Politics, 2016 Election

The Oxygen of Publicity

He arrived like a member of The Beatles: to screams.

The local paper — The Syracuse Post-Standard — described him as “ruddy-faced, tousle-haired and broadly smiling.” The crowd screamed, “We want Jack!”

John F. Kennedy’s official White House portrait. (Cecil Stoughton, White House)

The police had to hold back the estimated 8,000 strong crowd so the candidate’s motorcade could park. “Deeply tanned, and [wearing] a gray suit,” according to the Post-Standard, the candidate made his way to the platform before the Soldiers’ and Sailors’ Monument in Clinton Square.

There John F. Kennedy introduced himself to the crowd as the Democratic nominee for president.

Kennedy delivered his speech in his iconic Boston accent on the issues of the day: Communism and the Cold War.

In this foreign policy stump speech, Kennedy painted his Republican opponent, Richard M. Nixon, as inexperienced in foreign policy.

After concluding his speech, Kennedy attended a $50-a-plate fundraising dinner at the Hotel Syracuse where he again spoke to a 1,500 person crowd.

“While we talk to the underdeveloped countries about the evils of Communism,” Kennedy told the attendees, “the Soviets talk to them about the evils of hunger and poverty and disease.”

Afterward he moved through the crowd gathered shaking hands and urging people to vote.

“I won’t be elected without the support of New York State voters,” Kennedy said.

Kennedy carried New York by over 380,000 votes and went on to win the 1960 Presidential election.

This is retail politics. A politician, like Kennedy, attends a local event or in this case the campaign hosts its own. The goal of the event is threefold.

First, to make a personal connection with the candidate’s supporters. This would help ensure those supporters would get to the polls on election day and talk about the candidate with his/her friends and grow the support for the candidate.

Second, voters — especially those donating to the campaign — like to “look the candidate in the eye.” Studies have found that personal interaction with a candidate can be more important than the message the candidate is pushing. This is the classic question: which candidate would you rather have dinner with?

Third, to get earned media. By a local appearance, like this one in Syracuse, New York, Kennedy could ensure that all of the local media outlets would carry a story about his speech. This is akin to word-of-mouth except the local media, in the form of television and newspapers, are doing the sharing of the message. This earned media is far more cost effective than any paid ad.

Because of his massive earned media Donald Trump, the Republican candidate for president in the 2016 election, was able to do something unforeseen when he announced his candidacy. Trump was able to move topics into the national conversation: topics that have been excluded since the 1968 Independent Party candidacy of George Wallace.

The day after Trump’s announcement to run, The Washington Post’s Jose DelReal wrote, “Trump faces an uphill battle to be taken seriously by his rivals, political watchers and the media[…]”

Trump was able to offset the spending and fundraising of his primary opponents thanks to both the blanket cable news coverage of his speeches and his own penchant to call in or appear on cable news.

This is earned media. Often this is calculated as “Advertising Value Equivalency.” Jim Macnmarra, Director of the Australian Centre for Public Communication at the University of Technology in Sydney, Australia, offers this definition:

AVEs are calculated by multiplying column centimetres [or inches] of editorial print media coverage and seconds of broadcast publicity by the respective media advertising rates. In most applications, the total amount of editorial coverage is ‘valued’ as if it was advertising, irrespective of its content and tone.

Think of this as the old notion that “there’s no such thing as bad publicity.” In this respect Donald Trump is king.

From October 2015 — four months prior to the Iowa Caucus — to October 2016, Trump garnered over $4 billion in AVE according to research by mediaQuant. By comparison in the same time period, Hillary Clinton had $2.7 billion. Third party candidates Gary Johnson, Libertarian, and Jill Stein, Green, have a combined AVE of under $20 million.

The candidacy of Donald Trump survived as long as it did on the oxygen of publicity.