Obama is Pepsi and Hillary is Coke

[McCamy Taylor]

Some of my relatives swear that Obama is the distillation of all that was good about the sixties and Hillary is the evil establishment. Some of my relatives swear that Hillary is a goddess and Obama is a tool of the corrupt Daley Machine. Those two sets of relatives are not currently talking to each other, even though they are both lifelong Democrats.

That is the kind of product loyalty that soft drink manufacturers aim for when they come up with slogans like Coke: It’s the Real Thing



Or Pepsi: The Choice of a New Generation



Some people can taste the difference. Many people can’t. Then there are those who prefer RC Cola. I do not know of anyone who has disowned their relatives over soft drink preferences.

As we can see if we read Character and the Primaries of 2008:What Were the Media Master Narratives about the Candidates During the Primary Season? from the Pew Research Center, the press and the two remaining Democrats treated the primary as if they were selling Democrats a product.

“Issues? Issues? We don’t need no stinkin’ issues!”

http://pewresearch.org/pubs/854/candidate-character

In addition to all the “character” stuff—you know, Obama is the “change” candidate and Hillary is “ready on Day One”—the press mostly talked about the monster truck derby that used to be the Democratic Primary, before the 24 hour news networks decided to turn it into a spectator sport (Monster Super Tuesday my ass).

Looking beyond the master narratives about the candidates personally, coverage overall in 2008 has so far focused largely on the horse race. Fully 78% of the stories studied between January 1 and the first week of May have focused on political matters, such as who won the latest primary. By contrast, policy stories made up 7% of the stories, personal matters 7%, and the candidates' public record, 2%.

You got that? 7% policy, 2% record. We might as well have been electing the nation’s number one soft drink for all the information the press corp was giving us.

There is even more information at
http://journalism.org/node/11268

Here we find out that the two candidates got more or less equal treatment---if you average out different coverage at different sites. Their news media coverage was twice as positive as it was negative. The candidates themselves propelled and controlled most of their own positive character stories and were successful at forming the public perception of their image. Hillary/Coke created the impression that she was the “Real Thing”---tried and true and therefore ready on Day One. Obama/Pepsi created the impression that he was the “Choice of a New Generation”---not the same old same old and therefore an agent of change. The press pretty much went along with whatever the candidates had to say about themselves.

One interesting note, a table shows that the Clinton campaign was the source of 60% of the negative assertions which appeared in the news about Obama, while the Obama campaign was the source of 40% of the negative assertions which appeared in the news about Clinton, indicating that each campaign was doing a brisk business in oppo. You do not usually hear Coke ads telling buyers that Pepsi drinkers have cooties, but hey, no analogy is perfect.

One bit of oppo that did not come from the Clinton camp—the Rev. Wright story that Fox News interjected into the primary campaign was the number one story, taking up almost 7% of the primary coverage. This is truly obscene when you consider the problems which face the country----recession, war, energy crisis, global warming, civil liberties in danger---and shows just how decadent our press has become that it would rather discuss this non-issue than deal with the real problems that we face.

However, one of the difficulties for the press and for the voters has been that Sen. Obama and Sen. Clinton are a lot like Coke and Pepsi, which has made it difficult for the press to find something to discuss. They are both moderate, corporate friendly Democrats whose campaigns represent milestones for demographic reasons. They are prominent Democrats from major Blue states with ties to big players in the Party—Hillary to Bill Clinton, Obama to the Daleys. They have almost identical policies on most issues if questioned. Either one is electable. When John Edwards dropped out of the race, I decided not to choose from between the two of them, because there really did not seem to be any difference between them---except that some people will swear that one of them is great and the other sucks. And other people will tell you the exact opposite.

People will tell you the same thing about Coke and Pepsi, too. I am partial to Coca-Cola myself, but I wouldn’t vote Republican if someone offered me a Pepsi.

[baldguy]

1. Obama is a Mac, Hillary is a PC

Ron Paul is Linux.

[CerebralAssasn]

3. Goobama vs Yahillary

I think a more accurate comparison would be Yahoo Vs. Google.

VS


Ofcourse Yahoo being Hillary and Google being Obama. Yahoo, having been the establishment in the past, is trying to push further along with it's own personal agenda. It is swept currently in turm oil and trying to inflate its value more then what it's worth. You have insiders and investors vowing to overthrow the established management in Yahoo while others are working to be stuborn and resist the positive change.

Then ofcourse you have Obama (Google), an new start up in a way. Quickly dominating the market. Brand new ideas that the estbalished would call foolish. Thinks outside the box and finds ways to reach a wide variety of people. Google was seen as new and not "experienced" enough to compete with the Yahoo's & Microsofts....but has come in and changed the game. Has done it so well that it now has essentially ushered in a new way of web integration into everyday life (their apps, android os, etc).....

[DRoseDARs]

6. So, Hillary has the vast global market share, Obama sells shitty mp3 players...

...and Ron Paul is still a freak.

Crapintosh sucks, Obama does not. Terrible analogy. But the Tron guy is a nice touch.

[martymar64]

15. Stop lying about Macs, ya bastard!

I'm typing this from a 6 year old G4 tower. No PC's ever last more than 2 yrs.
Suck on that Byatch!

[DRoseDARs]

53. My PC has run fine for years. I only upgraded the motherboard in '05 to play a newer game.

Sorry, but I'm not sucking on your BS.

[Occam Bandage]

27. "Crapintosh?"

Sounds like someone's jealous of OSX.

Oh, don't worry, I hear Windows 7 is going to fix most of Vista's problems. Man, who would have thought that a company could put that much work into making that pointless of an operating system?

[DRoseDARs]

52. I've been calling them Crapintosh and Crapple since the mid-80's. Were you born yet?

And yes, Vista sucks, that's why it has not and will not ever touch any computer I have. Only suckers and Mac fanboys would immediately install a newly-released OS of either camp before the bugs have been shaken out. Windows 98 was great after SE (*shudders at memories of vanilla Win98*) but XP has never given me trouble.

[OzarkDem]

28. and Obama wants to put your medical records online

for everyone to see - and tells you its a good thing.

http://www.reuters.com/article/technologyNews/idUSN2854...

[femmedem]

8. McCain is an Atari 400.

[baldguy]

9. That had cartridges for the programs?

Like 8-track tapes?

[femmedem]

12. Yes it's that obsolete. But it featured an exciting

"advanced child-proof design featuring pressure-sensitive, wipe-clean keyboard."
http://oldcomputers.net/atari400.html

[martymar64]

16. No, McCain is a Heathkit

[femmedem]

22. Hee hee. That's so old I had to google it to see what it was.

[lefty2000]

41. I loved heathkit

It was a better world then.

[femmedem]

51. I know what you mean. It took me an unbelievably long time

to get rid of my old word processor and get a real computer.

And come to think of it, that was only because my parents gave me a hand-me-down.

[Hepburn]

29. I was thinking Commodore 64 is McGrandpa?

[ChimpersMcSmirkers]

30. Hey, I had an Atari 400! Let me tell you, it had better policy positions then McLame.

McSame is more like this:

[Clear Blue Sky]

37. More like a slide rule...nt

[tavalon]

54. LOL!

So true, so true!

[D23MIURG23]

61. McCain is a series of tubes

[klook]

58. Actually, Ron Paul is Sinclair.

And McCain is IBM 5100.

[MrSlayer]

2. Since Coke is better than Pepsi, I disagree.

Remember the Pepsi Challenge? I always chose Coke. Heh.

[hardbop]

40. Ha! Yeah, me too ... :)

I love Coke. Bad analogy!!!

Pepsi is too sweet and doesn't quench the thirst as much (well, as much a soda can be expected to).

[Deliphus]

43. Obama is Coke, McCain is Tab

I agree, Obama is Coke not Pepsi. And I can prove it, too, if you shake up a Coke...then drink it, it will taste like a Pepsi. So Pepsi is CLEARLY the lessor of the two...just as Hillary is clearly the lessor of the two.

McCain...is Tab. A nasty, fake pseudo-Coke (see his new website) with no nutritional value.

[Pathwalker]

44. Nah - McCain is Sleepytime Herb Tea.

Puts you right to sleep.

[ayeshahaqqiqa]

4. When I was 16, I realized how bad cola was for my health

Drinking too much of the stuff had upset my metabolism. I went cold turkey. Over 20 years later, I was in a situation where I was very thirsty and cola was the only drink available. It tasted like chemicals--horrible! I drink water and an occasional glass of tea now. They aren't corrupted.

You are right--what the media is marketing are corporate candidates that are closer to each other than the candidates that dropped out.

But don't worry about my vote--I'm very thirsty, and this time only cola and poison are available to drink. I'll take the cola, thank you. But I'm still hoping that water will come back into vogue.

[JohnnyLib2]

5. Love it!

And in 3 years or so, both brands will be touting variations on the "original."

[SoCalDem]

7. I prefer to think of him as a tall glass of refreshing iced tea with lemon

no sugar..no artificial sweetener..
We are thirsty..parched, in fact..and nothing quenches real thirst better than a tall glass of iced tea

[liberaldem4ever]

21. I'm from the South, and it is traditional to drink sweetened iced tea

I'm the oddball in my family, cause I like my ice tea like you described. No sugar, just lemon. Yummmm.....

[rug]

10. I'd rather have root beer.

[TahitiNut]

45. Root beer's not bad, but Vernor's is better.

[nebula]

11. Both are equally bad for you

Soft drinks rot your teeth and contribute to obesity.

[EstimatedProphet]

13. Good essay McCamy!

Unfortunately, like always, it will probably be overrun by people calling you names because you dared to not fawn over Our Great Man Obama.

I've always seen both candidates as being very similar. I supported Edwards. I'm an outsider to the fight of the century of GD: Obsessive/Compulsive. Then again, I drink Mountain Dew.

[iamahaingttta]

14. Lame.

As usual.

[La Lioness Priyanka]

17. in that case we need better dental insurance. nt

[Honeycombe8]

18. Either way, those are sexist pics. nt

[Emit]

19. My first thought, as well

ironic, no?

[Occam Bandage]

24. Indeed, the obvious aggressive phallocentrism of

the first picture is downright shocking.

[berni_mccoy]

20. Truly Lame.

[anonymous171]

23. Some of the arguments I have heard do sound very much like the futile "PEPSI VS COKE" arguments

[OzarkDem]

25. Great links, thanks!

[Name removed]

26. Deleted sub-thread

Sub-thread removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[QueenOfCalifornia]

31. flame bait

anyone?

[iamjoy]

32. How True!

I think of it like Coke vs. Pepsi because up until the early 1980's Coke was really dominant and sort of took their position as market leader for granted. Then along comes Pepsi with a great marketing campaign and POW! They oust Coke. Really the tastes are very similiar, but Pepsi came to be seen as very hip and Coke as old.

Well, Hillary took her position as front runner/presumptive nominee for granted and along comes this upstart with a great marketing campaign...

[donheld]

33. I've always imagined Barack as a pepper

Wouldn't you like to be a pepper too?

[unapatriciated]

34. Of course it matters which one you choose...

http://www.killercoke.org/crimes.htm

[bloodyohio]

35. It really depends on whether...

You're talking can or bottle. Pepsi is much better canned, while Coke is at its finest inside of plastic or glass. I proudly drink both. My university cut its contract with Coke temporarily last year because of efforts by student activists. That actually caused me to drink more Coke, because they were trying to take away my right to choose! Gobama.

[itsrobert]

36. Huh?

Weird.

[lefty2000]

38. McCamy Taylor Throws Her Relatives Under The Bus

Oh well. An avatar's gotta do what an avatar's gotta do!

[TheDonkey]

39. McCain is RC Cola.

[Jakes Progress]

42. Don't want to get into which is which

but the interesting thing about the Coke/Pepsi thing is what happened with New Coke.

Remember that debacle? Coke was afraid they had to change because all the blind taste tests showed Pepsi winning. If people were told they were trying two new soft drinks (no reference to Coke or Pepsi) they overwhelmingly chose Pepsi. No secret why. Pepsi had more sugar. Coke made New Coke which had more sugar than Pepsi and in blind taste tests, New Coke beat both Pepsi and Classic Coke. I was in a college advertising course around then. We did the tests ourselves and if people didn't know they were drinking Coke or Pepsi, they always chose the one with more sugar.

What the tests didn't take into account was people's images and experiences and memories of a brand. Once Coke tried to take away people's childhood, they rebelled. Coke learned and ditched New Coke (although I bet they have added more sweetener to Coke than it used to have). Now they trade on the Coca Cola typography and logo, and even their plastic bottles are shaped somewhat like the old coke bottles we geezers remember. Nothing beats drinking a Coke from one of the old 6.5 oz bottles, cold from the cooler.

My guess is that a large majority of seemingly irrational voting and voting preferences are based on the same kind of thing.

[Pathwalker]

46. So, who the hell is Diet Cherry Pepsi?

'Cause that's what I drink. I agree with the premis of your thread, though.

[bunnies]

47. I dont drink soda.

Guess Im screwed.

[Drunken Irishman]

48. Obama is Google, Hillary Altavista.

[Drunken Irishman]

49. And McCain is Dr. Pepper, because it tastes like prune juice and McCain looks like a prune.

[madrchsod]

50. Orbitz-The Drink with Balls!

i have a bottle of this stuff and after many years the balls are as firm as ever........

[grannylib]

55. Hillary's to-may-to; Obama's to-mah-to; McSame's rotten.

[mopinko]

56. and you are a boob.

i doubt that either candidate really wants to sell themselves on someone's tits. grow up.

[Liberal Dose]

57. Yep, Pepsi Generation comin' at ya, going strong!

Pepsi generation joins forces with Generation X to sweep Senator Obama to the White House in a historic landslide

[Bread and Circus]

59. Brand identification has profound psychological roots.

It's a highly emotional and often irrational phenomenon. It's very connected to people's sense of identity, ingroup/outgroup behavior, tribal identification, and ultimatly racism/sexism/ageism/insertismhereism.

It isn't going away but it's something we have to be aware of in order to have some sense of control over it.

[Zachstar]

60. Pepsi Rules!