Driving Political Opinion

As I begin this blog, there are 365 days until the 2008 US Presidential Election, and 59 days until the 2008 Iowa Presidential Caucuses. The purpose of this blog is three fold. I am a graduate student in journalism in the Greenlee School of Journalism and Mass Communication at Iowa State University in Ames, Iowa and this semester I am taking a graduate seminar on advertising effectiveness. Since Iowa is smack dab in the middle of the pre-caucus campaign season, a great deal of our class discussion has focused on political advertising. Presidential hopefuls are crisscrossing the state daily, shaking hands and making speeches in an effort to win the 2008 Iowa Caucus.  

Watching what often looks like a political circus more than serious campaigning on serious issues, I began to wonder what if any role does the traditional political bumper sticker play in the presidential campaign of 2008? Is it simply just a traditional form of retail politics or is it an effective advertising tool?  I hope this blog can help answer those questions.

I also hope the blog can help tell the story of the political bumper sticker, a truly American form of free speech. We’ve been warned not to argue with those who buy their ink by the barrel, but for the average Joe or Jane, a bumper sticker is a way to express oneself in the public square (one of the things I like about this blog program is its name: squarespace. The name seemed apropos to my project about the politics, bumper stickers and the public square) and to literally drive the message home. Americans have a love affair with their automobiles. The marriage of the political opinion stuck to the bumper of a car –  a symbol of power, speed, sex and independence –  is in itself so very American.

I also hope that the blog can be a place where an exchange of ideas about the political issues of our day can take place between people. I hope this can be a place for civil discussions about important topics that generate great passions. Some of these might be long discourses and others may simply be a thought that could fit on a bumper sticker. Welcome.

(As I worked on this research project, I began collecting examples of bumper stickers so I could study them as advertising tools, design elements, and mechanisms of free speech. The collecting became a lesson in presidential politics and American history. As a journalist I am intrigued by the role the bumper sticker has played in both the political arena but also in advancing the opportunity for people to express themselves in the public square. I created this public display called Bumper-2-Bumper as a way to exhibit some of the many presidential campaign stickers I have acquired and tell the story. It seems only fitting that bumper stickers be displayed on a bumper.)