Marketer in chief: How Each President Sold the American Idea

by Jason Voiovich

Overview

A fresh perspective on presidential history.

Why was the Spanish Peso more valuable than the U.S. Dollar? How did a public relations fiasco derail Cuban statehood? Would we remember Herbert Hoover as the Jeff Bezos of his time had he been elected eight years earlier? If these don't sound like questions you heard in history class, you're right. They're not. These are the questions you ask when you look at presidential history through the eyes of an advertising executive. Except Jason Voiovich isn't your typical "Mad Man." His penchant for asking weird questions has earned him a reputation as one of marketing's most original thinkers. Now, he's turned his unconventional eye on the conventional wisdom of presidential history. He retells the story of America through the eyes of its most influential salesperson - its president. America's Marketer in Chief.

Jason reconsiders the president's role in American life - in fact, the entire idea of America as a nation - from a tantalizing and fresh perspective. He recasts the president as a brand manager of the American idea, much as Henry Ford shaped the development of the automobile, or as Steve Jobs introduced the world to the smartphone. No less than the Model T and the iPhone, America itself is an innovation in government and culture. Jason takes us on a wild ride through the lifecycle of America - from its first introduction, through its rapid growth, and finally, into its disruption and renewal. He reimagines Thomas Jefferson's Louisiana Purchase as a family board game. He solves the riddle of how Calvin Coolidge forged the link between religion and politics. And he shows us why Barack Obama's presidency marked the end of the era of (human) soldiers.

Born from the wildly popular weekly blog in 2020, Marketer in Chief repackages presidential history in a way that's more natural for American consumers - the average person might take a history course in high school or college, but they make a purchase every single day. It's irreverent, occasionally foul mouthed, and surprisingly insightful. Who knows? Once Americans know how they're being sold, they might demand a better product.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781737001317
Publisher:	Jaywalker Publishing LLC
Publication date:	07/04/2021
Pages:	634
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 9.00(h) x 1.40(d)

About the Author

In a career that spans more than 25 years, Jason Voiovich has launched hundreds of new products - everything from medical devices, to virtual healthcare systems, to non-dairy consumer cheese, to next-generation alternatives to the dreaded "cone of shame" for pets, to sex aides for cows (really!). He's a graduate of both the University of Wisconsin and the University of Minnesota, and he has completed post-graduate studies at the MIT Sloan School of Management. His formal training has been invaluable, but he credits his true success to growing up in a family of artists, immigrants, and entrepreneurs. They taught him how to carefully observe the world, see patterns before others notice them, and use those insights to create new innovations. History is Jason's favorite way to observe the world. He believes the people from the past have plenty to teach us about the challenges and opportunities we face today.

Editorial Reviews

I have always believed that anything and everything is a brand. Products, services, celebrities, cities, states, people. You name it. So of course I am absolutely fascinated by Jason Voiovich's look at the United States as a brand and its Presidents as the chief marketers of the brand during their administrations. Brilliant. "Marketer in Chief" is a journey through history through the lens of marketing, which leaves this brand lover with stars in his eyes. Five stars.

Jim Joseph

5-time award-winning author of "The Conscious Marketer", President, NA at McCann Health

. . .

This clever mash-up of history and marketing offers insights into both and proves there really is nothing new under the sun. A fresh angle on the "marketers" who've inhabited the White House.

Jack Kelly

Author of The Edge of Anarchy: The Railroad Barons, the Gilded Age, and the Greatest Labor Uprising in America.

. . .

"This is a rare book--original, fast-moving and filled with memorable stories. Jason Voiovich is a polymath, eager to share his excitement about all the ways marketing (and advertising) change our world."

Seth Godin

Author

This is Marketing

. . .

"Intriguing and innovative - Marketer in Chief: How Each President Sold the American Idea exemplifies both characteristics. In this volume the professional marketer Jason Voiovich writing from his perspective offers a uniquely fresh approach to the history of American presidents. As an historian, I did not always agree with his reading of American history, but I always found the book fascinating. And I think most readers will have the same reaction."

William Cooper, Ph.D.

Boyd Professor at Louisiana State University, Past President of the Southern Historical Association. Author of several books, including: The Conservative Regime: South Carolina, 1877-1890; The South and the Politics of Slavery, 1828-1856; Liberty and Slavery: Southern Politics to 1860; Jefferson Davis, American; Jefferson Davis and the Civil War Era; and coauthor of The American South: A History; and The Lost Founding Father: John Quincy Adams and the Transformation of American Politics.

. . .

I found this book to be interesting, well-researched, and informative. It presents U.S. Presidents and their accomplishments in a new perspective, and it is the perfect book in the era of podcasts where any question, response, and issue is on the table. It is the kind of book that will make American history come alive and gets the reader to rethink the evolution of the nation and where we are going.

Morris Kleiner, Ph.D.

Professor and AFL-CIO Chair in Labor Policy at the Humphrey School of Public Affairs, University of Minnesota; Visiting scholar at the Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis

From the Publisher

2022-11-11
A reconsideration of American presidential history centers on the categories of modern marketing.

Voiovich is not a historian—in fact, his diverse background includes “product development, persuasion, psychology, marketing strategy, storytelling, value signaling, audience segmentation, negotiation, and sales.” Unsurprisingly, his nonfiction book aims to reassess the history of the United States and, in particular, its parade of presidents in light of their attempts to sell ideas to their constituencies, to persuade them to buy into the latest stage of the always-evolving American experience. The model for this role—“Marketer in Chief”—wasn’t a president at all. Benjamin Franklin “made the French fall in love with the idea of America” and, as a result, should be considered an “advertising and marketing genius.” The author appropriates the categories of a theory devised by Everett Rogers, a communications expert, called the diffusion of innovation, in which people generally fall into different groups depending on their psychological attitudes toward novelty and risk. The range extends from “innovators” and “early adopters” to “laggards,” those who stubbornly resist invention until such intractability is rendered impossible. George Washington counts as an innovator, one charged with pushing the frighteningly new, while Jimmy Carter and Gerald Ford are considered laggards. The two men focused on holding on to America’s “past in the face of dramatic change around the world.” Voiovich invents a new category as well—Barack Obama and Donald Trump are labeled “disruptors,” two “leaders who saw the challenges of declining dominance and decided to shake up the system to do something about it.” The author’s knowledge of modern marketing is impressive, and the book is spangled with astute comparisons to McDonald’s, Walmart, and Kodak. In addition, his interpretations can be refreshingly unconventional—for example, he argues that James Polk “is the most important President you’ve never heard of” and that Abraham Lincoln’s principal rhetorical gift, his “superpower,” was his talent for humor, especially his “power to lampoon ridiculous behavior.” Given the influence of popular opinion on a democratic republic, it simply makes sense to look at executive action from the perspective of modern marketing categories. But there are limitations to this mode of analysis, and some presidents are harder to capture in these terms than others. Voiovich admits that he struggled to explain Ronald Reagan’s presidency using this method. Moreover, the most disappointing accounts the author offers are of the more modern presidents, Obama and Trump—scant insights are provided into the kinds of public sentiment that defined those historic presidencies. To his credit, Voiovich acknowledges the limits of his analytical perspective: “This history—exploring the role of the Presidency as Chief Marketing Officer of the American idea—is another simplification. Because of that, there are plenty of stories I chose not to tell. Like all histories, I needed to curate a small selection of stories to help illuminate an aspect of the Presidency that hadn’t been fully explored.” There are far deeper works of scholarship on the development of presidential rhetoric, ones that delve more rigorously into the speeches given and the strategies devised. But for those looking for a more accessible synopsis, this is an entertaining and instructive book.

An enjoyable and edifying guide to presidential history.

Kirkus Reviews