#23 Campaign to urge the international press to refrain from referring to the current President of the United States by his given name
Portrait of Shaun Cassette
There's an old adage that exists amongst publicists and spin doctors, that "any publicity is good publicity" - that by keeping somebody's name out there in the public domain, no matter how damaging the stories might be, ultimately raises their profile, thereby asserting their 'brand', and gaining the market share.
This has been never more evident than in the recent US election campaign, where the amount of 'dirt' that had been dug up on the new President, appeared at the time to be so scathing, that the presumption was that it was going to completely derail his campaign - yet, as we now know, the result was the complete opposite. We can only assume that his appalling behaviour, his 'bitch tweets' (that have led Twitter to consider removing his account), his misogynistic treatment of women, his racism, his ignorance, his unashamed lies and his personification of 'hate culture', is something that a huge section of American voters can identify with, and that this was fuelled by his constant presence in the press, resulting in him being awarded 'Person of the Year'* by Time Magazine - not because of his good deeds, political policies or contribution to society, but because he was the most talked about person in the world, whose name is now up there with God, slipping off the tongue like a byword for either 'good' or 'evil', depending on which political camp you might be standing in.
If the press, who have become his sworn enemy and ineffectual nemesis, were to ignore him, never referring to him by name, then the cessation of this free publicity would start to deplete his market share and cut off the pipeline to his dangerous ego, thereby defusing the political time-bomb that he has set in motion.
But maybe it's all too late, maybe he is just a mirror to the populace, maybe his 'lies' are the new 'truth', maybe this is real reality TV, maybe morals and ethics are now finally redundant, and were only ever a smokescreen invented by religious founders to keep everybody in their place - who knows? I guess we'll just have to wait and see - in the meantime, keep up the campaign.
*of the Divided Staes of America
