from citizen to consumer

in the past few decades, it has become increasingly popular to use focus groups, polling, and advertising in putting together a political campaign. for most of us, this is our only understanding of how our political system works during elections.

the commercialization of politics is an absolutely fascinating topic, and one worthy of reflection in age of political complacency. the history of political advertising has everything to do with the expansion of mass advertising itself - the techniques created by PR and ad firms were directly translated to the world of election campaigns...how we function electorally has much to do with the functions of the mass market.

and alas...what does this mean to us?
my main concern with political marketing is that it aims to show society exactly what political participation is. Polls, focus groups, and those few times you are actually asked to vote...those things have become what political involvement is within a market framework. the impact of advertising on politics has everything to do with limiting our view of the public sphere's potential. This leads me to ask:

What about community interest groups? What about getting together because we care about a common social concern? What about dissent?

By limiting this point of view, it doesn't even appear that our democracy is being undermined. With the consistent emphasis on the individual rather than the community (certainly epitomized the weight that we put on a party's leader), politics have become an issue of "what's in it for me?" more than anything else. all we are left with are mere cash transactions...