Marketing Hip-Hop Online

Michael Steele, you are a jigga-jigga-genius!

The recently elected token president of the Republican Party states that he wants to “convey that the modern-day GOP looks like the conservative party that stands on principles. But we want to apply them to urban-surburban hip-hop settings,” with a plan to implement a PR campaign to update the GOP brand that will be “avant garde” and “will surprise everyone – off the hook.”

Steele believes that “Republican” is seen only as the party of the deep-South and red states, and that to turn around their catastrophic failures in the last few years, they simply need to “reach beyond” their comfort zone, out to “urban-suburban hip-hop settings” appealing to “young people and moms” and the all-important voting bloc of “one-armed midgets” (yes, yes he did say “one-armed midgets”).

Doing so, he reasons, will show “who we are for the 21st century.”

He’s right! After all, the Republicans chose a totally unqualified and out-of-touch woman to be their VP candidate, probably simply because she is a woman, to counter the enormous effect that women voters had for the Democrats, thanks to Hilary Clinton. That candidate went on to embarrass herself and her party with her nonsensical statements to the press, proving not only her own ignorance, but the stupidity of the Republicans for putting her there in the first place, and fueling the suspicions about the ulterior motives behind her nomination.

It’s the same party that chose a totally unqualified and out-of-touch black man to be the GOP leader, probably simply because he is a black man, to counter the enormous effect that black people had for the Democrats, thanks to Barack Obama. That party leader went on to embarrass himself and his party with his nonsensical statements to the press, proving not only his own ignorance, but the stupidity of the Republicans for putting him there in the first place, fueling the suspicions about the ulterior motives behind his nomination.

Oh wait. That second one was Michael Steele.

So apparently, if he had his way, he himself would not have been elected. If the Republican Party was so in touch with the hip-hop crowd, and young people, and moms, they would never have elected him as their party leader. They would know that you cannot simply start a PR campaign touting the imaginary hipness of the party, and that it would magically make people forget that they were behind the disastrous shape our country is in right now.

They would know that Barack Obama did not win the support of hip-hoppers, young people and moms, and ultimately the majority of the nation, simply because he was cool (though he is), or led an incredible campaign (though he did), has an awareness of social media and technology (though he does) which was implemented perfectly, using iconic imagery, branding and all the tenets of a good marketing campaign.

They would know that all of those things mean nothing without sincerity.

The Obama campaign touted change, change with a purpose. Mr. Steele must have forgetten that the slogan wasn’t “Change For The Sake Of Change” or “Change Because After All People Will Vote For Anyone Not Named Bush”. It was “Change You Can Believe In.” That was the difference.

Now Mr. Steele says the GOP will change. He stated, “I don’t do ‘cutting-edge. That’s what Democrats are doing. We’re going beyond cutting-edge.”

Hmm. Let’s imagine the mindset at work here.

GOP: “Hey! We can appeal to women and moms too!” the party seemed to say, “Look! Sarah Palin!”

Didn’t work.

Then: “Hey! We can appeal to youngsters too! Look! Sarah Palin’s on SNL and Twitter!”

Still didn’t work.

Then, after losing to President Obama: “Hey! We can appeal to blacks too! Look! Michael Steele!”

Now Michael Steele says they need to do something different. “We are in the crapper now,” he so eloquently stated. So he says:

“Hey! We can appeal to women and moms and youngsters and blacks and hip-hoppers and one-armed midgets too! All we have to do is change!”

Changing the party leader’s vernacular to include phrases like “bling-bling” and “off the hook” may fool the ignorant members of the Grand ‘Ol Party into believing that you are in touch with the hip-hop generation, and can somehow cook up a scheme to wrest them away from the President and his party, but will not fool anyone else.

Pay attention to the advertising business Mr. Steele, before you go off hiring big PR firms to orchestrate your makeover. The same young people and members of the urban-suburban hip-hop settings you wish to target, don’t really fall for the okey-doke anymore.

By miserably continuing to get ahead simply by copying what the Democrats were able to do naturally, you, Mr. Steele, are changing nothing.

In fact, Michael Steele, I’ve changed. My mind. You are an iwwit-iwwit-idiot.

 Email This Post