The Elephant and the Ass

Alrighty, just like I said, now I'm going to examine the origins of the Republicans' elephant and the Democrats' donkey. Unlike the colors of red and blue, these mascots go way back into history. What I find particularly interesting is the fact that neither the elephant, nor the donkey, is particularly heroic or even attractive.

It's actually quite a bit simpler. The donkey originated in Andrew Jackson's 1828 presidential campaign.

After this cartoon, the donkey was pretty much synonymous with the democrats. Even now, the embrace it, saying that it is smart and brave.

The Republican Elephant is only slightly more complicated, and it actually comes from the Donkey. In Harper's weekly in 1874, they feature the below cartoon, where the elephant, labeled "The Republican Vote" is running away from the donkey clothed in Lion's skin.

It, also, was embraced, and the Republicans now say that it is strong and dignified.

We hardly even notice these symbols any more, they are simply an image, without any meaning of their own. The fact that the democratic symbol is a donkey really has no effect on how the party is viewed at all, which is probably good for them. The words 'stubborn' and 'ass' are not positive, especially in politics.

Red and Blue

I always found it interesting, how red and blue are associated with the Republicans and Democrats. So today I looked up the origins of these associations.

It's become such a tradition that I hardly notice anymore. Our colors are Red, White, and Blue, but for whatever reason, each of the parties in our two-party system have chosen to associate themselves with only one. All you have to do is watch the debates or look at a map to see it:





Well  after looking at the Wikipedia page and a Smithsonian article, I realized that things are quite different now, from the way things used to be. In general, Democrats actually used to be red, and Republicans were blue, but some people used different colors or the system we use now. In Europe, the left was associated with red, and this influenced many of the color schemes.



Now, there is no doubt: Republicans are red, and Democrats are blue.

So what changed? Blame the 2000 Election, between Bush and Gore. It went on for so long, and maps were shown so often, that eventually, even unconsciously, everyone began to use the same scheme. People even started using the terms 'blue state' and 'red state,' to the point where today we don't even notice. These terms are cemented not only in our minds, but also in our visual culture. And they ain't gonna leave, either.

Check out my next post where I will examine the Elephant and Donkey.

The Rule of Seventeen?

Continuing in my mini-series-thingy on the Rule of Three, I will now focus on why other lengths and methods are not as successful.

I'm not going to sit here and tell you that 4 or 5 or 6 (etc) word slogans don't work. All I'm saying is they don't work as well.

The first reason why actually has nothing to do with the Rule of Three: Three word phrases work well because they're short. You don't have to stand there in front of the poster for 30 seconds to read it, all it takes is a glance. This isn't necessarily a novel idea--slogans are pretty short to begin with--but sometimes people don't put in the effort to make it as short as possible.

Just compare these posters. Which do you find most effective and visually appealing? Furthermore, which one are you most likely to actually remember?

   

Sure, they're both memorable right now, but if you were in a hurry to class, I think we can all agree on which one is easiest to read. With each extra word, the message becomes more jumbled.

Yes We Can has a simple structure, with three distinct parts. See my previous post for some background. If you add a fourth and fifth word, like "Yes We Can Do It," it messes with the message, and makes it exponentially less effective. Also, the word "Do" limits the possibilities put forward by "Yes We Can." Yes We Can says that we can do anything, or not do anything, if so we choose. Also, notice that it doesn't say 'Yes America Can', or 'Yes the People Can.' These just complicate the simple message of the Obama campaign.

[Kind of going off on a tangent, another thing I've noticed is that the farther back you go, the longer the slogans. This could be because people have learned from their mistakes, but personally I would argue that it shows our shortening attention spans.]

Well, this closes out my two-part rant about campaign slogans. Who knows what the next half hour (and another blog post) will bring.

Third Word's the Charm

On election night, President Obama posted this tweet on his twitter feed:

"Four more years. pic.twitter.com/bAJE6Vom"


(Here's my source. You can also go there for more social media coverage)

It caught on like wildfire. It was favorited 240,000 times and retweeted over 700,000 times. Quite simply, its the most popular tweet of all time.

What's even more interesting is the timing: he posted it at 11:16pm, which is pretty early, even though most people agreed that he had won. There are many facets to this, but I will focus on one in particular: his use of three words.

Three words, no more, no less, are a staple of campaigns. Just look at the slogans of our past Presidents:

Lincoln: "Vote Yourself a Farm"
Harding: "Cox and Cocktails"
Eisenhower: "I Like Ike"
Nixon: "Nixon's the One"
Clinton: "Putting People First"
Bush: "Yes, America Can!"
Obama: "Yes We Can"

The power of three is palpable, even if most people don't even realize it. It's called the Rule of Three, and it's the idea that, basically, everything is better in threes. The basic feel of it is 1) the creation of tension, then 2) its buildup,  and 3) the release of that tension. It can be seen in many, many essays, and especially speeches. Even in music, the three movement form is extremely common in all kind of classical and popular music.

Just look at Muse's Exogenisis: Symphony, and you can clearly see this Rule of Three in action, not only in the music, but in the volume and lyrics.

"Four more years" works in the same way, although on a smaller scale. "Four" creates tension ('four what?'), "more" builds tension ('We're getting more of something...do we want more?'), and then "years" releases the tension, answering all of our split-second, unconscious curiosity.

All of the above slogans work in the same way. In my next post (the second of four, today) will talk about what more (or less) words can do to a slogan.