I'm Crushin' On Rachel Maddow
September 26, 2008
By Guest Blogger, Mary Schmidt, Marketing Troubleshooter
...And not just because she's a liberal progressive (I'm actually conservative on some issues). So, how do I love Rachel? Let me count the ways (with some marketing points along the way):
1. She doesn't bloviate. She talks, she comments - but she doesn't bombast us like the male commentators do. I can't speak for all women - but most of us have really grown tired of the Big Boys telling us what to think in their oh-so-sonorous God-like tones.
2. She acts like we're all in this together. She's not lecturing the camera.
3. She looks friendly. She smiles a lot (oh that smile! It lights up her whole face) and seems like someone you'd love to invite to dinner - even if you didn't agree with everything she believes.
4. She doesn't diss her guests. Unlike the Big Boys, she doesn't yell at people or talk over them. And (this I don't get) she seems to genuinely like Pat Buchanan. If she can talk the issues with "Uncle Pat" in a sane manner, shouldn't the "leaders" be able to do so in Washington?
5. She seems ever so reasonable and level-headed. She appears to have actually thought about the issues. (Hmmmm...Rachel has a doctorate in political science, from Oxford and was a Rhodes Scholar. No wonder. She likes to think!)
We women love information ( at least those of us who like to think), and lots of it...and we really don't like all that yelling most of the political pundits so love to do. As Craig Ferguson (on whom I'm also crushin') noted in one of his routines, "Yelling doesn't make stuff true." (Grow up, already!)
6. She comes across as a sister that everyone would like to have. Rachel would be the one who "talked down" Mom when the old girl had one too many at Thanksgiving and went on a rant.
7. I trust her (at least as much you can anyone you don't personally know.) While Rachel is unapologetically partisan, I also think she's doing her best to follow up on facts and talk the data - not insult my intelligence with dumbed-down, reactionary sound bites.
Any good marketing and selling all comes down to the people doing the marketing and selling. Do we like them? Do we want to talk to them? Do we trust them?
(Now, if the righties had someone similar - we might have some good television, with useful discussion. Who knows? If Ann Coulter ever ate something nourishing, she might become reasonable! The poor thing seems to hallucinate.)
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