• by Wayne Friedman , Staff Writer, September 7, 2016

Donald Trump says Hillary Clinton doesn’t have a “presidential look.”

No, Trump wasn’t doing a casting call for a new reality TV show -- a spinoff of, say, “The Apprentice” and “Celebrity Apprentice.”

He was talking about much more reality: How should the leader of the United States look? Trump didn’t elaborate. “I just don’t believe she has a presidential look, and you need a presidential look... to get the job done,” said Trump on ABC’s “Good Morning America.”

Substance may indeed be thin when it comes to some voters’ preferences.  Does a candidate look happy, serious, sad, flustered, or others? Is he or she wearing a hoodie and flip-flops?

That said, TV is all about “casting.” And in recent years, it has gotten confusing in many areas. The big head-scratcher for me: Reality TV show producers continue to talk about “casting,” relativity openly.

Now back to political TV. Chuck Todd, host of “MTP Daily” on MSNBC, said Trump judges how his spokespeople appear on TV while watching them on “mute.”

Because the image is even more important than what the person is saying?  Sure, this is TV and politics. Spin can be everything, and images do carry a lot of weight.

Take an image of the San Francisco 49ers quarterback, Colin Kaepernick, who is now kneeling during the playing of the national anthem to protest police violence against African-Americans.

What’s the consequence here? Many sharp responses for, and against, Kaepernick. But here is one unexpected business point resulting from this: Kaepernick’s number 7 jersey is now far and away the best-selling NFL jersey.

Still, you can probably guess how this might be affecting Kaepernick’s own business dealings -- his sponsorship deals. Maybe not that positively? TV marketers, their spokespeople and political protests don’t mix. These images may be confusing for TV-savvy consumers.

For Trump, perhaps increasingly less so. Think that "presidential look" remark was a slip of the tongue? Image can be really important to those with a big TV profile. Remember what he said about former presidential candidate Carly Fiorina: “Look at that face!”