Bruno Giussani - Articles on Politics and Society
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A "thank you" from George and Laura
How I became a "founding member" of the Bush-Cheney campaign, and what that reveals about political marketing
by Bruno Giussani
15 September 2004
So, I'm now a proud member of the Bush-Cheney presidential campaign, and it appears that, even though I'm a foreign national, my support will be "critical" for George Bush's re-election in November.
To show me their appreciation for my efforts in helping the American president "turn back the Democrat assaults" and promote his "positive, optimistic agenda for America", the Bush-Cheney 04 Inc. sent me a large beautiful colour picture of George W. and Laura Bush. Under their relaxed smiles, the portrait carries a personal inscription: "To Bruno Giussani, thank you for your early commitment and dedication as a Charter Member of the campaign in California. Grassroots leaders like you are the key to building a winning team." It is autographed by both of them.
Actually, it is signed by the autopen, one of those machines that reproduce the signatures of busy people who don't have the time to sign the "personal" messages they send. But that should not diminish my satisfaction. Along with the picture, Marc Racicot, the chairman of the Bush-Cheney campaign, sent me a letter saying that he "would be thrilled to tell the President you are with us". President Bush is too busy to sign the picture but he would find the time to be personally notified that I am supporting him.
Yet upon closer scrutiny, it turns out that even Racicot's signature is made by the autopen. And the same applies to the "Dear Friend" that opens the letter, which has been traced by the machine and replaced by an endearing, yet fake, "Dear Bruno".
The envelope contains a third sheet of paper. It is called "Presidential Photo Receipt Confirmation Form", and Marc Racicot invites me to send it back to confirm that I have received the picture "in good conditions, suitable for framing and display". The best mode of confirmation is apparently to send money: the form asks for a financial contribution.
Yes: the letters and the picture are part of an effort to raise funds and to galvanize potential voters. To which I cannot be part even if I had the intention to do so: I'm a Swiss citizen. Contributions by foreign nationals to American campaigns are not permitted, and of course I can't vote in the United States.
I had received the photo and letters just by mistake, I thought. The American political campaigns have a reputation for being extremely sophisticated in targeting voters and supporters by using the techniques of commercial marketing. After all Karl Rove, President Bush's top strategist enjoys guru status in the use of direct marketing methods in election campaigns, and candidates increasingly rely on the advice of tech managers who know how to find patterns in unstructured data.
According to an Associated Press story of October 2003 the two main political parties have developed huge databases that allow them to "get a pretty good idea of who will vote" and to target fundraising efforts by "spotting voters who identify with a party but haven't yet donated to it". The Democrats have a system called "DataMart", which is thought to include 158 million names (with, says the party, more than 300 pieces of information attached to every name: addresses and phone numbers, income level, race, education, family, voter roll, drivers license, and so on). The Republicans have their own system, named "Voter Vault", covering 165 million names. These are very impressive figures: 111 million American citizens voted in the 2000 presidential election. Christine Iverson, a spokeswoman for the Republican National Committee, is quoted in the same article as saying: "We are very confident that we have state-of-the-art methods of identifying and turning out Republican voters".
Clearly, my address had passed through the cracks of all that amazing technology. That was actually the only issue that bothered me: how did my address - my private address in Stanford, California - end up in the Republican database and what information was associated with it to make Marc Racicot believe that I could be a "Charter Member" of the Bush-Cheney campaign? I'm a foreign citizen. I'm a journalist and I don't get involved in political campaigns on either side. And all contacts that I've had with anyone in the Bush-Cheney or Republican organizations never involved my private address.
But I had other things to do, so I didn't put much effort into finding out. Until a few weeks later, when I received another George-Laura picture (accompanied by the same letter and form). The Republican database was proving to be good at least at tracking the fact that I hadn't reacted to the first contact nor sent a check.
And the same day my friend Will received the same photo. He is American. But he is 13 years old: not really a likely voter.
It appears that both Will and I hadn't received that picture by mistake. A search on Google and Lexis-Nexis reveals that dozens of readers from Miami to Chicago to San José have written to their local newspapers in recent months to comment in sarcastic or offended tones for receiving the same picture and letters while being Democrats. My postal address (which I traced back to an institution in the Bay Area) and Will's were clearly part of a massive mailing drive. In 2000, the election came down to a difference of 537 votes in Florida. This year's presidential contest, with Bush-Cheney on one side and Kerry-Edwards on the other, is expected to be even closer and more unpredictable. Every vote may truly count. The Republican campaign is visibly nervous and is blanketing the country with "personal" letters and pictures in the hope of randomly hitting the few that may make the difference. So, despite the miracles of modern technology, even the most important political campaign in the world seems to still be very much a work of trial-and-error. And of money to pay for (among countless other things) all those colour pictures, for the postage stamps, and for the anonymous worker who steers the autopen machine.
(copyright 2004 Bruno Giussani)
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