Michelle Obama has strong arms…

Before you think  this is some sort of tabloid blog, let me assure you that the headline is related to marketing in many ways and marketing is my subject here.

I was waiting for a meeting with a client in a lawyer´s office today. While drinking a very nice cup of coffee, a newspaper article on a table caught my attention. The headline read “Michelle Obama: First Lady of flex” and it turns out that her secret is exercising regularly and something called “supersets” which are a set of triceps pushdowns and hammer curls. Now, there is not much marketing in this so far, is it?

THE WHITE HOUSE/JOYCE N. BOGHOSIAN/AP FILE PHOTO

Well, Barack Obama and Michelle Obama are now something like pop culture icons worldwide. It seems that everywhere they go, the impressions are always more than positive. And this kind of little articles are a big reason for it. The Obamas have one of the greatest marketing teams out there and they themselves are excellent marketing material and excellent marketers. That little article of “First lady of flex” is not very usual for a president´s wife, but it is extremely common of movie stars and actresses that are on the rise. This particular news article tells the audience a couple of “meta-messages”:

1. Michelle Obama is fit, strong and very much alive. Those are powerful messages in and of themselves as they position Mrs. Obama with powerful generic adjectives that can be used for many different campaigns, including, helping making her husband´s image much stronger (a guy who marries a strong woman, has to be very strong himself). This reflects directly on Mr. Obama.

2. The Obamas are using their “awesome people” status to push a political agenda. Barack Obama and his cabinet have been trying to push a health care reform which is one of Obama´s campaign promises but they are having a difficult time convincing the public and as a consequence, the politicians. By doing this kind of interviews, where the Obamas talk about their health and fitness, they are creating a setup for the health care reform, they are telling the public that because they are strong and healthy, they know what a good health care reform should be.

As illogical as all this seems from an intellectual point of view, by becoming celebrities and real humans to Americans, they are using marketing to push the Obama administration agenda and attaining the goals set from the beginning. If this good marketing or what do you think?

Ma Cualli Ohtli!

Tags: great marketing, meta messages in marketing, Michelle Obama, Obama marketing