The Cynical Marketing of Kinky Friedman

[Czolgosz]

Burka's Blog affiliated with Texas Monthly offers some of the best political insights available in Texas. Currently there is a very insightful debate about the cynical manner in which cutting edge marketing techniques are being used to promote Kinky Friedman's half-baked candidacy. It is worth checking out. Here are some of the most provocative discussions:

You cannot believe that the timing of Kinky's authorized re-publication of his essay in High Times was an accident.

Texas is a 50% GOP, 35% Democrat, 15% Independent state.

Early in the election, Kinky got a bad rap as a liberal, and it was KILLING his campaign. The internal numbers from SurveyUSA and other early polls were showing Kinky splitting the Democrat vote with Bell. This is a great campaign strategy only for anyone who wants to get involved in a bare-knuckle fight for third place.

Kinky NEEDED to refine his message to reposition himself to the right (the further right, the better; right of Perry, best), and you can identify the last weeks of August through the first weeks of September as the launch date for this self-conscious repositioning effort. ...

The timing of all this and the outspoken nature of all this is no coincidence. Kinky means to win this election and he's going to do it with Republican votes because that's who votes in Texas (or have I simply overlooked all of the Democrats holding statewide elected offices?).

Some people say Strayhorn was behind the "re-discovery" of Kinky's racially charged statements, some people say it was Bell, and still others say it was Perry.

I tell you it was Kinky himself. Look at Kinky's numbers since he has DOMINATED the news for newscycle after cycle as a result of these statements. Kinky has lost some support among liberals (i.e., the small part of the electorate) but the internal numbers of the latest polls show that Kinky has gained ground among Republicans (i.e., the conspicuously large voting group that Kinky -- or Perry or Strayhorn -- MUST get to win this election because NO ONE CAN WIN BY GETTING ONLY A PIECE OF THE 35% OF TEXAS WHICH VOTES DEMOCRATIC).

How do I know it was Kinky's campaign who leaked all the "re-discovered" comments from Kinky's past? Simple, who gave High Times permission to re-publish Kinky's recent article? Obviously, the same thinking is behind both decisions, and we KNOW Kinky is the only one who could have given High Times permission to re-publish his essay.

And another provocative thought:

Kinky's campaign is very political and his positions and statements are as well calculated as his black hat and cigar costume which Kinky refuses to appear without (it's all it's all part of a marketing idea called "brand strategy").

Here is the text of Kinky's big statewide political ad:

"Folks, I heard an old-time preacher reading from the Book of John the other day. He said the Good Shepherd knows and recognizes his own and his own know and recognize him. And when the wolves come, the hired hands flee, but the Good Shepherd stays. Folks, we don't need a politician as governor any more. We need a Good Shepherd. I want to be your Good Shepherd. I'm Kinky Friedman, and that's why I'm running for governor."

Why, you might ask, is a Jewish candidate who has professed to be an atheist running an ad based on the New Testament Book of John? Kinky told us himself back in a 2001 article he wrote for Texas Monthly:

But it wasn't former U-boat commanders who torpedoed my candidacy. It was my inability to appeal to the religious right. To me, the religious right has always seemed like the kind of place where if Jesus walked in with three nails, they'd probably put him up for the night. But I persevered. I even went so far as to become a Southern Baptist until I realized that they didn't hold 'em under long enough. ... Yet as I wander through the raw poetry of time, I do not feel emotionally scarred by my defeat....Without politics, of course, we wouldn't have so many great opportunities for freedom of choice. Without politics, we wouldn't have become this wonderful land of chain restaurants, chain bookstores, and chain people from sea to shining sea! ...But now, I have hope once again in our political system, thanks to the election of George W. Bush as president.

Kinky's current campaign demonstrates nothing so clearly as the fact that Kinky has learned from his prior unsuccessful political campaign.

[STxDem]

1. The blog that addresses this issue says Kinky shot himself in the foot

with his corny "Good Shepherd" ad blitz:

Kinky Friedyman's brand is in trouble.

Texas gubernatorial candidate Kinky Friedman had, up to this point, a strong personal brand: the satirical, non-PC wisecracking candidate. That brand has what we call a high "trampoline factor" -- the ability to bounce back from bad behavior backlashes such as his past insensitive remarks. (A 1997 newspaper interview quoted Kinky as saying, "I applaud teenage suicide." The same article detailed his use of the N word in a comedy act 26 years ago at a Houston club.)

But Kinky's trampoline may be losing some of its resilency. Friedman's media whiz--Bill Hillsman of Jesse Ventura and Paul Wellstone fame-- is trying to change the Kinkster's image from wisecracking satirist to the Good Shepherd from the Bible.

Let's dissect this for a moment....his personal brand -- how he has been known and what he has been loved for most of his adult life -- is his satire and non-politically correct comments. To completely change that image in midstream to its polar opposite (the Good Shepherd) will confuse voters. Who is the real Kinky Friedman? Is it the wisecracker or the Good Shepherd?... If his image is suddenly changed to one of a Biblical do-gooder, Texans will see the image change for what it is: pure spin. ... But when you try to create a new brand image to counter negative publicity, it almost always backfires.

[Czolgosz]

2. Kinky is marketing himself with no more subtlety than he markets his salsa

Kinky is a product, and people who think otherwise are sad.

Kinky isn't the Texas version of Jesse Venture (who had actually served as an elected mayor and had the support of the Libertarian and Reform parties).

Kinky is the political version of a pet rock. He's a faddish marketing gimmick. Whether Kinky's one-joke campaign has run it's course by election day or not will decide whether or not Perry gets re-elected, which is also sad.

[Lithos]

3. Yep, couldn't agree more

Funny how they came out with a cheap slogan and a doll to sell first before anything else.

L-

[Czolgosz]

4. I'm disgusted that Liz Smith retracted her gross misjudgment that Ann

would have supported Kinky in response to the swift correction from Ann's family but Kinky still trades on this foul mistake of Smith's misjudgment.