Commentary

Would A National TV Campaign Help President Biden?

Does President Biden need a TV marketing campaign to champion all he has done since becoming President?

Plenty of experts believe he needs some high-level messaging for all his successful efforts -- ahead of the crucial 2022 midterm election.

There was a ramping up of vaccine efforts. The American Rescue Act, a $1.9 billion bill passed in March, expanding unemployment benefits, the child tax credit, and grants to small business. The recent infrastructure bill that was passed into law.

At the same time, there is concern about rising inflation -- which many say was a somewhat expected side effect, due to the economic effects of the COVID-19 pandemic, followed now by a sharp rise in the economy this year.

For many -- and seemingly by design -- President Biden, the person, the public official, has a lower profile than the previous guy. Is that better? Perhaps, the U.S. President just will be a loyal, perhaps somewhat under-the-radar civil servant.

The argument for better presidential marketing comes from Biden’s current approval ratings -- through 323 days of his presidency is now at an average 42.8%, according to FiveThirtyEight.com -- under a key 50% threshold.

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If that sounds bad, take a look at his comparison to Trump’s approval rating at the same time.

At day 323 of his presidency, Trump was at a 37.3% score -- and this was long before COVID. So Biden is about five percentage points better. And Trump’s efforts came amid nonstop marketing/social media messaging from Trump himself via Twitter.

For his first seven months, Biden’s approval ratings were over 50%; Trump was never above 50% for his entire presidency. Interestingly, President Obama, after his initial period 10 months in positive territory, started getting negative approval numbers in December of his first year in office.

Low approval ratings could warrant a big marketing campaign -- paid advertising, better public relations, and perhaps more public appearances.

Biden did benefit from a modest campaign in July -- a $10 million “Building Back Together” effort on broadcast, cable TV and digital platforms. But this was just in the Washington, D.C. area.

About a month ago, on MSNBC, legendary ad executive Donnie Deutsch said if there is a marketing/PR effort for Biden, it should revolve around one word: economy. In press conferences, Biden has talked it up. Dow Jones Index is up 16% since Biden took office, closing at 35,719 on Dec. 8.

Still, right now, perhaps other messaging from “earned media” -- otherwise known as TV and other media news organizations' content -- might need to tell more of his success story.

2 comments about "Would A National TV Campaign Help President Biden?".
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  1. Ed Papazian from Media Dynamics Inc, December 13, 2021 at 8:24 a.m.

    Wayne, if they tried such a thing, I'm afraid that they would need to find a more energetic seeming double to play Biden "running" to meetings, ""climbing" the stairs to enter Air Force One, etc. Of course the double would always have his back to the camers so when he finally turned around they could show Joe's face---with proper lighting, of course.

  2. tyler lubbers from clench Media, December 14, 2021 at 9:22 a.m.

    I have never heard of refusing to take one question from the free press, that is not rehearsed described as "President Biden, the person, the public official, has a lower profile than the previous guy"
    That must have took some serious thought to come up with that load.
     
    Also you forgot to mention that Trumps numbers were low because of 24/7 news about completely debunked Russia Hoax and other fabricated lies that were happily repeated millions of times by media. I am not a pro trump, or any politician for that matter. But these blatant lies need to stop. Biden has been a failure so far, no clever word play you come up with is going to change that. Maybe he can turn it around. But so far results are results. 
    So stop pushing this propoganda on your readers, we deserve better and most of us are smarter than that.

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