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JWT: Hoping For Equanimity? Try Wednesday

Person-Anxiety

As we all have read, Republicans are either about to sweep the midterms or will at least win back some mojo. But are they happy? No, it's High Anxiety in the Red States. Is this bad news for political candidates? No, but it may be for marketers, as the study shows that what Americans feel about political circumstances could influence their feelings about the products they consider buying.

A new study from JWT's research arm says the overall anxiety of Americans has returned to levels not seen since late 2007. Seventy percent of Americans the group surveyed for its yearly AnxietyIndex say they are "nervous or anxious," although the numbers are slightly lower than the 76% in May and 82% in November 2008, when anxiety was at an all-time high for the seven-year old study.

The report, based on an online survey of 519 Americans between Oct. 18 and 25, is the 20th installment of the index, which was launched during the run-up to the Iraq war. Marketers have obviously been hoping that consumer sentiment will track GDP and stock figures, but it ain't likely to be so. The firm says anxiety about leadership is up by one-third and is much more pronounced for Republicans than it is for Democrats and independents. Ninety-one percent of Republicans polled said they were anxious about the economy, versus 82% of Independents and 73% of Democrats.

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Ann Mack, director of Trendspotting at JWT, tells Marketing Daily that media is fanning the flames. "I think that right now, the Republican Party has done a tremendous job drumming up anxiety among its base vis à vis what would happen if Democrats maintain control. And anxiety drives behavior. The more anxious you are, the more you think things are spinning out of control, the more you try to maintain some semblance of control with immediate behavior, including purchase behavior."

Mack points out that anxiety about the economy has actually decreased a lot between September last year and October 2010. Republicans, however, believe twice as strongly as Democrats that the cost of food at retail will decrease if their candidate wins. Thirty-three percent of Republicans polled said the price of food would go down; 23% of Republicans -- 7 percentage points more than Democrats polled -- feel that the quality of new vehicles will improve if the Republicans win; 21% of Republicans think the cost of new vehicles will come down if their candidate wins, a percentage number eight points higher than that of Democrats polled.

But the biggest difference is, not surprisingly, around governmental issues: 63% of Republicans said laws would be more favorable if they are victorious, versus only 30% of Democrats seeing an improvement if Democrats retain control, which reflects the energy on the right in this election.

"Republicans feel much more strongly about things getting better when it comes to governmental issues, such as tax burden, though the percentages go down when it gets to cost of food, or quality of cars and vans," notes Mack.

Pessimism clearly has a stronger valence than optimism. Sixty-five percent of Republicans see food prices getting higher if Democrats retain control of Congress; 42% see the safety of food deteriorating; 39% of Republicans see decay in the quality of new vehicles and the same number see the safety of new vehicles declining. Nearly half of Republicans polled said the cost of new cars and trucks will go up if Democrats win on Tuesday.

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