Identify & Analyse the difficulties Barack Obama had to overcome when competing against both Hillary Clinton in the Democratic primaries and John McCain in the presidential elections.
Obama became the 44th President of United States, there were many challenges he faced in order to reach that stature. One of the major challenges that Obama faced was that he was an Afro-American (Smith & King, 2009) with a Muslim father. After the 9/11 terrorist attack, Obama’s greatest fears that his roots might generate fears among American people and the people of America will see him with fear & suspicion. Another disadvantage against him was his short political career. Hillary Clinton had an experience of 35 years, as compared to her Obama was running for president after being in US Senate for two years (Obama, 2006, pp.63). There were speculations whether his experience was sufficient for him to run for president. However, against this fact, there were many opinions from political scientists and historians (Iyer & Purkayastha, 2009) because Obama was neither the youngest nor with the least experienced presidential nominee. Obama wasn’t always a good Politian, as a matter of fact he flopped earlier (McClelland, 2007). Obama’s wife, Michelle Obama was targeted during his campaign for presidential elections; a website called “FighttheSmears” was launched to fight the rumours and fabrications about him by the media (Iyer & Purkayastha, 2009). RNC started a websites like “MeetBarackObama” and “CanWeAsk” to highlight alleged flaws and push users to ask crucial question to him (Iyer & Purkayastha, 2009).
Critically analyse, through the application of relevant theory, the use of IMC within the Barack Obama campaign.
Information Technology changed the practice of marketing communications by intensifying the toolkit used to create, implement and deliver the message (Schultz
References: Abroms, L.C. & Lefebvre, R.C. (2009). Obama 's Wired Campaign: Lessons for Public Health Communication. Journal of Health Communication: International Perspectives. Vol.14, Issue 5. pp. 415-423. Chowdary, T.H Dean, D.H. (2004). Consumer Reaction to Negative Publicity Effects of Corporate Reputation, Response, and Responsibility for a Crisis Event. Journal of Business Communication April 2004 vol. 41 no. 2 192-211. Gowda, R. (2007). ICTs and political organizing in India. Political Science Symposium, University of Florence, Italy. Hendricks, J.A. & Denton (Jr.), R.E. (2010). Communicator-In-Chief: How Barack Obama Used New Media Technology to Win the White House. Lexington Books: Maryland. Henneberg, S.C Inthorn, S. & Street, J. (2011). Simon Cowell for prime minister '? Young citizens ' attitudes towards celebrity politics. Media, Culture & Society April 1, 2011 33: 479-489 Iyer, N Jackson, D., & Darrow, T.I.A. (2005). The Influence of Celebrity Endorsements on Young Adults ' Political Opinions. The Harvard International Journal of Press/Politics, Vol. 10 (3), 80-98. Keniston, K. (2003). “Introduction: The Four Digital Divides.” In K. Keniston and D. Kumar, The Four Digital Divides. Delhi: Sage. Mangold, W.G. & Faulds, D.J. (2009). Social media: The new hybrid element of the promotion mix. Business Horizons Vol. 52, pp.357-365. Marshment, J.L Matthew, C. (2008). Advertising Age. Obama Wins! ... Ad Age 's Marketer of the Year. 17th October. Retrieved from http://adage.com/article/moy-2008/obama-wins-ad-age-s-marketer-year/131810/ Last Accessed on 26th April 2012. McClelland, E Nagourney, A. (9 December 2008).“In Election’s Wake, Campaigns Offer a Peek at What Really Happened,” New York Times. Retrieved from www.nytimes.com/2008/12/09/us/politics/09webnagourney.html Last Accessed on 23rd April 2012. Nithya, H.M Novak, R. (2009), ‘Marketing to Millennials: A Lesson Learned from the Obama Campaign’, TheDaily Anchor, 19 January, http://www.thedailyanchor.com/2009/01/19/marketing-to-millennials-a-lesson-learned-from-barackobama/ Last Accessed on 26th April 2012). Nownes, A.J. (2011). An Experimental Investigation of the Effects of Celebrity Support for Political Parties in the United States. American Politics Research May 1, 2012 40: 476-500. Obama, B O 'Reilly, T. (27th December 2008). Google, WalMart, and MyBarackObama.com: The Power of the Real Time Enterprise. Retrieved from http://radar.oreilly.com/2008/12/google-walmart-mybarackobama.html Last Accessed on 26th April 2012. Pease, A Pelsmacker, P.D., Geuens, M. & Bergh, J.V. (2010). Marketing Communications: A European Perspective (4th Ed.). Pearson Education Ltd.: Essex. Popkin, S. L. (1991). The Reasoning Voter: Communication and Persuasion in Presidential Campaigns. Chicago: University of Chicago Press. Schultz, D., & Schultz, H. (1998). Transitioning marketing communication into the twenty first century. Journal of marketing communication, 4(1), 9-26. Smith, R.M. & King, D.S (2009). Barack Obama and the future of American racial politics. Du Bois Review: Social Science Research on Race. Vol. 6: pp. 25-35. Tenhunen, S The Times of India (2012), Indian Youth Congress. Retrieved from http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/topic/Indian-Youth-Congress Last Accessed on 20th April 2012. Till, B.D. & Shimp, T.A. (1998). Endorsers in Advertising: The Case of Negative Celebrity Information. Journal of Advertising. Vol. 27, No. 1, pp. 67-82. Tjora, A.H Vaidyanathan, R. (3rd January 2012). BBC NEWS: Is 2012 the year for India 's internet? Retrieved from http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-16354076 Last Accessed on 20th April 2012. Wood, N