2020 Super Tuesday Brand Archetype Results
Super Tuesday is the most important single day in the U.S. presidential primary process, since nearly one-third of the total delegates are up for grabs.
As voters go to the polls in 14 states today, I thought I’d take a look at how each of the candidates show up as Archetypes.
Any of these could apply to their behavior in the moment, but if you analyze the way they speak, their ads, their issues, and the way we see them show up in the media and on the internet we get a pretty good idea of who they are - at least on the surface. How you come across publicly isn’t necessarily what’s on the inside.
Bernie Sanders
With his Socialist leanings, it seems that Sanders wants to play the Everyman or the Regular Guy/Regular Girl. This brand archetype is for brands that want to level the playing field, let people feel like they belong.
Being this archetype is like being the Folgers coffee of politics.
This archetype focuses on providing something so far removed from pretentiousness that it can appeal to everyone. This is a hard archetype to pull off, as Sanders is currently experiencing.
Technically, the role he plays is that of The Outlaw. Outlaw brands are disruptors. They aren’t afraid to challenge the Status Quo. This is the brand that appeals to the part of you that cut class in high school, but Bernie isn’t actually cool enough to pull that off.
Joe Biden
Ah, Joe Biden. He wants to appear as the Jester, but he’s actually whatever the archetype is for your creepy uncle who keeps trying to kiss you on the mouth at every family gathering.
In all seriousness. Biden is trying to show up as The Lover. Passion, pleasure, and sensuality are the lover’s keywords.
A lover brand wants you to associate them with intimate moments in your life. The lover is someone who knows you intimately (gross, Uncle Joe.)
His decisive victory in South Carolina is directly linked with his efforts to understand, identify, and empathize with the experience of minority voters. It’s hard to pull off that Lover archetype without being truly sincere and authentic.
Pete Buttigieg (dropped out 3/1)
Straight outta South Bend, Mayor Pete wasn’t just running for president. According to his official campaign website, he’s recruiting people to join a movement.
That movement won’t stop now that he’s dropped out of the race, as he will continue to be a factor in the 2020 Election and beyond.
He says he’s a “new kind of leader” who’s going to get us all to rally together to solve our most urgent challenges as a nation. He shows up as the Hero. But I suspect he’s attempting to become our Magician in Chief.
The Magician Archetype is great for brands that want to make all our wildest dreams come true. The Magician Archetype offers a grand experience that no one else could achieve. The Magician is about transformation.
Only Pete could offer our nation the opportunity to transform in a similar fashion to South Bend, which became a “Twenty-first Century city” under his leadership. He just won’t be doing it as the next president.
Michael Bloomberg
Is there an Archetype for turncoat?
In all seriousness, Bloomberg is a classic Hero Archetype.
The hero makes the world better by being the best. A hero brand isn’t concerned with nurturing you, they’re interested in challenging you.
If you want to rise to the occasion, you’re going to need a Hero’s help.
Leveraging his previous experience and track record as Mayor of NYC, Bloomberg is hoping that you’ll buy into his kind of hype and heed the call to join up.
Elizabeth Warren
Warren tells us to dream big, fight hard, and win by building a grassroots MOVEMENT to fight corruption head-on and put power back into the hands of the people.
It’s as if her positioning statement was pulled directly from The Innocent Archetype’s playbook.
Innocent brands are known for being authentic, down to earth, honest. Of the people. Grassroots. The Innocent is an archetype for people who say they value honestly and compliance overall.
Amy Klobuchar (dropped out 3/2)
For the life of me, I can’t figure out what Klobuchar is.
Maybe that’s because 1) I can’t ever remember her name, and 2) she just isn’t that distinctive.
Based on her appearance at the debate last week, as she avoided the flailing arms of the impassioned candidates on either side of her, she appeared as The Innocent.
Even her commentary when asked about her reaction in a now-viral photo that’s all over my newsfeed seems to indicate that she’s just asking “why can’t we all just get along?”
If the rumors are true about how she treats her staff, including the comb-salad story, she could be The Ruler.
Tom Steyer (dropped out 3/1)
Billionaire Tom Steyer didn’t just want to shake things up. He wanted to fix what ails us as a country.
Not all Outlaws are entirely “dark” in their personalities and dealing. (Think Robin Hood, for instance.)
A self-styled “outsider,” Steyer was taking the Outlaw role straight to our current Ruler in Chief and fixing everything: our “broken” political system, climate change, and taxes.
He was so disruptive in his approach that he made his tax returns available on his website under a tab called “Transparency.”
He invited us to peruse more than 3,000 pages of tax returns in detail, so he could show us that he’s a goody-goody and let us all know that he and his wife are going to give away the vast bulk of their wealth over their lifetime – presumably to make themselves feel good, but more likely to make us feel like shit.
Tulsi Gabbard
If there were a Chameleon archetype, Tulsi would be it.
As the only combat veteran in the race, she initially comes across as the Caregiver. She’s looking to further her service to her country by ending military conflict because she believes that’s how to best protect and take care of others.
However, many of her actions make her come across as The Outlaw - staying in the race no matter what, suing Hillary Clinton for defamation, and fighting against the Democratic Party’s powers-that-be.
Ultimately, she’s none of them, because she has spent much of her campaign trying to be all things to all people - which never ends well.
Bonus: Donald Trump
Trump is the Ruler archetype.
“Power isn’t everything. It’s the only thing.” This has been his archetype since he hit the scene decades ago.
The Ruler is all about power and control. The ruler seeks luxury and exclusivity. A ruler brand is a gatekeeper.
If a customer buys from them, they get to belong to the elite. Who’s more of a gatekeeper than Donald Trump?
One day you’re in; the next you’re out. He even built a gigantic wall to prove it.
