Rory Sutherland Rory Sutherland

What the media is doing to our politics

issue 26 November 2022

An American academic told me that during the 2016 presidential election nobody in academia believed there was the faintest chance Donald Trump would win. Except for the primatologists, that is.

It was that silverback gorilla, alpha male thing – and Trump played the role freakishly well. One election tweet showed him enthroned in his private jet eating a KFC meal, gravy and all. This said ‘I have a Boeing 757 with monogrammed headrests, but I eat the same food as you.’ That’s anthropological gold, right there. No one could imagine Hillary Clinton eating KFC – she’d be hospitalised by a trip to Nando’s.

No one could imagine Hillary Clinton eating KFC – she’d be hospitalised by a trip to Nando’s

It’s an old marketing ploy. To differentiate yourself, you ostentatiously do things your competitor is culturally incapable of doing without looking inauthentic or losing status among their peers. If you have a humourless competitor, tell jokes.

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