Boorstin, whose thoughts on the image prefigure the philosopher Jean Baudrillard’s simulacrum in every respect (except in the French philosopher’s gleeful acceptance of the hyperreal), sees democratic societies as being more concerned with what people believe than with what is true: credulity is more important than credibility. Boorstin worried that this meant we were becoming accessories to hoaxes that “we play on ourselves.” But perhaps this is too pessimistic a reading. From the very moment that George Washington was inaugurated— and the paving stones on which he stood were prized up and hoarded—we have been willing to sacrifice reason and fact to impression and sentiment. Indeed, the emotional, illogical choice has a much longer tradition than the intellectual one. As the brand consultant Wally Olins has stated, “In a sense brand affiliations seem, in our individualistic, materialistic, acquisitive, egocentric era, to have become some kind of replacement for or supplement to religious belief.”

The emotional impulse that brands create in us is strikingly similar to what theologians describe as a “leap of faith”: the act of passionately believing in a religion without empirical evidence. If that’s the case then the branding and marketing of candidates hasn’t degraded the democratic process, as Adlai Stevenson feared. It has instead made it immaculate.

"All The President's Marketing Men" originally appeared in the October 2008 issue of Modern Painters. For a complete list of articles from this issue available on ARTINFO, see Modern Painters' October 2008 Table of Contents.