Branding “Progressive” in the Midwest – Your Thoughts?

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The folks at the Center for American Progress are looking for opinions on their new ad campaign currently running in the Columbus, Milwaukee, and Indianapolis media markets. Here are there ads:

These first two are great, particularly the first one. The left lost the branding wars over the word “liberal,” and this sort of head-on messaging is necessary to win the branding wars over “progressive.” I particularly like the line “Progressive. And proud of it.” Less success here, though…

By pairing the progressive message with those super smug Mac ads, these spots just reinforce the idea that progressives are coastal elites who think they dress hipper, talk smarter, and know politics better than their middle American cousins. There’s also a dangerous degree of oversimplification going on.

Fact:

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