US mailboxes full in final phase of presidential election
With the US presidential campaign moving towards its endgame, campaign organisers are reaching for big-hitting tactics.
Overflowing American mailboxes can testify that, among the razzmatazz of crowd-pleasing rallies and opponent-knocking TV ads, they are turning to more traditional means of engaging with the voters – direct mail.
As US journalist Jim Kuhnhenn notes, direct mail is part of the US political message playbook.
Does direct mail have a role in these TV-obsessed days when a fetching pair of specs or a Hollywood endorsement gets you as much attention as a speech on the global financial squeeze? Barack Obama and John McCain, not to mention their running mates Joe Biden and Sarah Palin, evidently think so.
That’s not to say their mailed messages are any more polite than those on TV.
A review, quoted by Eli Saslow in The Washington Post, of direct mail advertisements found they had become ‘more spiteful, more exaggerated and often more ominous.’ Candidates find it less damaging to their image, apparently, to make attacks through the mail than on TV.
Direct mail, says Saskow, has influenced US political campaigns since the late 1960s and its influence is growing.
Why? Because it works; direct mail has a history of swaying voters late in elections. Because it’s specific; direct mail can be targeted to voters in particular neighbourhoods. Because it’s good value; direct marketing campaigns are cheaper than mass market television ads.
And, finally and less admirably, because – in the US at least – campaigners feel in print they can be more negative.
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