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"This book argues that marketing is inherent in competitive democracy, explaining how we can make the consumer nature of competitive democracy better and more democratic. Margaret Scammell argues that consumer democracy should not be assumed to be inherently antithetical to "proper" political discourse and debate about the common good. Instead, Scammell argues that we should seek to understand it - to create marketing-literate criticism that can distinguish between democratically good and bad campaigns, and between shallow, cynical packaging and campaigns that at least aspire to be responsive, engender citizen participation, and enable accountability. Further, we can take important lessons from commercial marketing: enjoyment matters; what citizens think and feel matters; and, just as in commercial markets, structure is key - the type of political marketing will be affected by the conditions of competition"--

It has become commonplace to speak of political parties and brands. This article looks at the rise of the brand and explains how branding has become the cutting edge of commercial marketing. It examines how the brand concept and research techniques are used in politics and focuses in particular on the rebranding of Tony Blair in the run up to the 2005 U.K. general election. More broadly, it argues that branding is the new form of political marketing. If market research, spin, and advertising were the key signifiers of marketed parties and candidates in the 1980s and 1990s, "branding" is the hallmark now. It will argue that the brand concept has analytical value. It is not simply a convenient and fashionable term for image. Furthermore, it is a demonstration that we are moving from a mass media model to a consumer model of political communication.

A review essay on books by (1) Steven Barnett & Ivor Gaber, Westminster Tales: The Twenty-First Century Crisis in Political Journalism (London: Continuum, 2001); (2) John Bartle & Dylan Griffiths (Eds), Political Communication Transformed: From Morrison to Mandelson (Basingstoke, Hants: Palgrave Macmillan, 2001); (3) Philip Gould, The Unfinished Revolution: How the Modernisers Saved the Labour Party (London: Trafalgar Square, 2000); (4) Bernard Ingham, The Wages of Spin: A Clear Case of Communications Gone Wrong (London: John Murray, 2003); (5) Nicholas Jones, The Control Freaks: How Labour Gets Its Own Way (London: Politicos, 2004); (6) Peter Mandelson, The Blair Revolution Revisited (London: Faber & Faber, 2002); & (7) John Street, Mass Media Politics and Democracy (Basingstoke, Hants: Palgrave Macmillan, 2001). Adapted from the source document.