The Meaning of Obama

It does not matter whether Obama wins or losses the election,the power of Obama the symbol if not the man, has already been unleashed and established for ever.
Because the emergence of Obama is the emergence of a new world.
Obama is the classic Outsider so evocatively portrayed by Colin Wilson in his book with the same title.
The Outsider has never been part of the world of mass emulation.
Politics has always disdained the Outsider. Especially the politics of "loud" democracies like the US and India. Occasionally quieter democracies in Europe might elect one to a position of power.
Advertising has always disdained the Outsider. You see it is a niche in the market but there is,as they say, no market in the niche.
Though some of us have always admired Outsiders when we meet them in the occasional book, the rare movie or in the quiet corner of a party.
So if we suddenly have an Outsider firmly center stage on the world's biggest stage surely it signifies a humongous inflection.
The inflection when the world our public life stops being dominated by the principal of the Least-Common-Denominator or LCD, as many in the world of mass communication call it.
LCD is when we choose to address an issue only at its most simplistic level just because that is the only ground common among all those we want to address.
Obama certainly does not subscribe to issues at the simplistic level.
So what is it that enables him to reach out to so many, so intensely?
Is it because the common ground has moved up to include complexity and gray?
Is it because one to many communication has found the means to get closer to having the power and richness of one to one communication?
It is a mix of both.
Today's young and those among the old who keep up with the times do not see the world in black and white.
Simply because the world keeps pumping into our consciousness a never ending stream of information, images and emotions through a pipe whose fatness increases every minute.
And it is the same technology and communication infrastructure that feeds the above mentioned fat pipe that enables savvy practitioners to give one-to-many communication the intensity and power of one-to-one.
The emergence of Obama signifies a moment that the world of marketing must not ignore.
The inflection has been on the cards for a long time and by and large the portends have been ignored.
But now that we know it has happened and the proof is speaking on every television set in the world, it would be incredibly foolish of marketing not to change its ways.
In previous decades it was said that Madison Avenue would adopt an outlying, rebel movement and quickly make it mainstream. And continue on its merry, unchanging way.
Not this time. Not with this inflection. Real change will wait no longer.