Democrats' new slogan sounds oddly familiar
The new Democratic Party slogan, 'A Better Deal: Better Skills, Better Jobs, Better Wages,' sounds very similar to that of Papa John's Pizza, but can they deliver on it?
Democrats, after lengthy deliberations, reportedly have settled on a new slogan – and it’s not exactly getting rave reviews.
The winner, according to Vox, is: “A Better Deal: Better Skills, Better Jobs, Better Wages."
The slogan drew immediate taunts given its obvious similarity to the Papa John’s tagline, “Better Ingredients. Better Pizza. Papa John’s.”
But considering the party has been scrambling to regroup with an effective message and strategy since its November thumping – all toward the goal of retaking at least one chamber of Congress next year – Obama-era communications pros greeted the slogan with a collective facepalm.
“If your slogan uses a colon or a comma, back to the drawing board,” tweeted Jon Favreau, former speechwriter for then-President Barack Obama.
“Fire every consultant involved,” added Jon Lovett, a former speechwriter for Obama and Hillary Clinton.
And in a more colorful tweet, he ruled, “ALLOW ME TO SECOND ANYONE WITH A F---ING BRAIN: THIS SLOGAN IS GARBAGE. Hoping it's not real.”
The Republican National Committee press shop gleefully circulated their put-downs overnight.
Unclear is whether the Democrats might revisit the choice before formally announcing it.
Vox congressional reporter Jeff Stein first reported on the slogan, saying he was told it would be released on Monday. He initially omitted the “Better Deal” part but then corrected himself.
Stein added, “Another member noted that this is the result of months of polling and internal deliberations among the House Democratic caucus.”
A Politico report earlier this month that previewed part of the slogan – “A Better Deal” – also said the slogan was being polled in battleground House districts.
After the party’s White House loss, Democrats faced intense criticism for building last year’s message around opposition to then-candidate Donald Trump – with not enough focus on what their candidates, including presidential nominee Hillary Clinton, would do. The electoral map also exposed a failure to connect to key blue-collar voting blocs in battleground states like Ohio and Pennsylvania.
The effort to craft a new slogan apparently is being led by congressional Democratic leaders and has been a rocky process all along. House Democrats recently asked people to vote on a new slogan – with the options largely focusing again on resisting or mocking Republicans.
One of them was: “I mean, have you seen the other guys?”
The supposed winning message, though, might be rooted in a rallying cry from former Clinton VP nominee Sen. Tim Kaine.
As noted by Ezra Levin at the liberal Indivisible Project, Kaine advertised a May op-ed with a tweet that said, “Better Skills. Better Jobs. Better Wages. My thoughts on why Dems need a stronger economic message in @USATODAY.”
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