Introduction: The Electronic Soapbox

‘Political Marketing’ — a term we see increasingly in newspapers, a part now of the baggage of conventional orthodoxy — has come into its own with popular recognition that it is a convenient shorthand for something people recognise as central to the operations of their democracy. In 1988 the Presidential campaign confirmed yet again the magnetism of approaches that conceived of politics as a product marketing exercise, with chairmen of major advertising agencies backing top Republican candidates Dole (Gray Advertising) Kemp (BBDO) and Bush (the ex-Chairman of Young and Rubicam).