美白保湿面霜排行榜,星星港湾业主论坛,思路决定出路读后感
II. Image and Publicity Image is very important to the politicians if not the single most important thing to him/her. Sung and Yang (2008, p 360) quoted Dichter (1985) who referred to image as “the total impression an entity makes on the minds of others” and Kotler and Andreassen (1996) defined image as “the sum of beliefs, attitudes, stereotypes, ideas, relevant behaviours, or impressions that a person holds regarding an object, person, or organization”. Thus, good or excellent image would spell the political career success while tainted image could spell the downfall of one's political career. That's why advertising the politician's image or what is called publicity or public relations is a very important tool of the politician. Public relations is to “offer a positive image (Go, 1996, p 82)” and “includes ongoing activities to ensure the organization has a strong public image (McNamara, 2008)”. Together with the technological breakthroughs that the world has gone through in the last decades, a revamped on the perception has also taken place. Because the changes and innovations has brought a perception being new, the old are relegated to a lower status on their way to obsolescence. It is in this concept that even the public image of the politicians needed a makeover. Thus, the revolution in terms of public image including fashion sense of those who hold office in the government is also slowly changing. In recent years, a new trend is emerging. When President Dmitry Medvedev of Russia appeared before his countrymen and declared that he was to become their next president, he was wearing jeans (Morris, 2008). US President Barack Obama was also often seen in his dressed down fashion. Another article that appeared in yahoo news has shown both presidents wearing jeans thus jeans has become a new symbol of a different kind of image for public servants. This trend could be said to be parallel with the evolution in advertisement as the concept behind them are almost equal. The apparent dressing down of the people in high office are somehow the way of communicating with their target audience that they are the ‘new'. The world is continuously changing and evolving including almost everything in it and they too have evolved. For President Obama, the image he is projecting including his choice of fashion conveys his mantra of change. He was replacing the old and letting the new emerge. To complete the package of his change battle cry, he even included the revamped on the expected and long held proper wardrobe for a world leader. Dressing in jeans is also part of the politician's bid to reach out to the youth, in consonance with their bid for their attention when they moved their political campaign into the lair of this segment of the society-the internet and all the way into their social networking sites. As jeans are usually the wardrobe of the young, it has also become symbol of being carefree and dynamic. In US Senator Kerry's visit to the Facebook headquarters, it was reported that he looked out of sync in his suit and tie among “the site's young, casually dressed staff (Grynbaum, 2006)”. Apart from US President Obama and Russian President Medvedev, other high ranking officials and world leaders are following suit which include France's President Nicolas Sarkozy, Afghanistan's Hamid Karzai, Condoleeza Rice, San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom, and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi among others (Morris, 2008). This change is all about their ‘new' image and the message they want to convey to their public. It is all about introducing who they are and what they are capable of doing for their countrymen and for the world (Binkley, 2009). The advantage and disadvantage of this emerging hip and casual fashion among world leaders (and even business executives) depend on the perception of the public. The traditional and conservative might frown and declare that they are doing a great disservice to their positions because of their fashion sense. They could argue that they are shedding the supposed respect that is attributed to the formal attire. For the youth, it could go both ways. It would depend on the connection that they would notice between the new image and with what the politician really represent. For the fashion industry, it could be the breakthrough of a new era or a destruction of the traditional and conventional. The future of this fashion trend with the world leaders could not be predicted properly as it would completely rely on how well these leaders handle the upholding of their public image, in the eyes of their electorate and in the eyes of the world. But one thing is certain, these politicians may have revolutionized even their fashion sense so that they can project themselves and advertise who they are to the public but everything will all boil down to the strong and positive public image that they have and they will retain and maintain. Conclusion So much has changed in the world in the last few decades because of the technological breakthroughs that the world has seen and experienced. Most of the changes emerged from the invention and discovery of new methods and devices in communications. Because of this, even advertising and public relations of politicians were compelled to jump in and be part of the global evolution. These changes involved seeking innovative ways to communicate to the target audience and get the message across just to convince the public about their ideas and platforms of government. The internet has become the venue of the race of these politicians in their bid to get public attention and claim their trust. Recognizing that communication is influenced by physical and social settings, they adopted and developed a more natural and informal style, not only through the social media as an avenue to reach out but also in their fashion statements (Start and Tamayo, 1995, p 57-60). As a big part of the segment are the youth, these politicians have revolutionized their fashion sense to conform and be accepted by this distrusting segment of society just to be included in their networks and be trusted with their votes. After everything is said and done by the politicians in their public relations and self advertisements, after they have tried desperately to build an image that would be acceptable to more segments of the society, after the votes have been cast during election, it would be the reign and leadership of these political leaders that would determine the future of the methods they have utilized in advertising and the trends they have stirred in fashion - if the changes have been worthwhile or not. |
