First name basis
by WonkoKevin
Hillary. Rudy. Fred. When people say those names, I wonder if they are thinking Duff, Vallee, and Flintstone, or Clinton, Giuliani, and Thompson?
This year’s campaign is marked by the trend to call certain candidates by the first names, and I began to wonder why. A stroll through communication and sociological theory tells us that people use another’s first name either because they are either socially close, or wish to demonstrate power over the other. Marketing science would throw in a third possibility, that the person’s first name has become part of the brand image of the person.
Voters and MSM are not socially close to Rudy and Fred and Hillary, nor do I believe are they calling them by their first names to gain power over them (after all, it’s not face-to-face). Thus I think the answer is that is a brand issue–we have come to a point where the three of those candidates have become iconic. As icons, it would be very hard for these candidates to change their image–Hillary must run as Hillary and Rudy must run as Rudy, and let the chips fall as they may. The second Hillary isn’t Hillary or Rudy isn’t Rudy, they’re gone.
Fred is interesting case. “Fred” has been primarily used by his supporters; we have yet to see whether detractors will also refer to him as Fred, or Thompson. My guess is the latter, because they will not wish to add to the Fred-brand, which right now is pretty strong and positive. One possible scenario is that his detractors start calling him Freddie. To paraphrase Monty Python, “Fred” has a nice wooden sound to it, but “Freddie” sounds a bit tinny.
So why not John, Barack, Mitt, Mike, or John? Why W but not John? Why Dick but not Hubert? I think in large part it’s because the populace and MSM has not decided upon a simplified characterization of these last-namers. In this case it’s not social intimacy but rather public intimacy that leads to first-name calling. History demonstrates that while being a caricature can have its downside, voters don’t tend to vote for complex people that they can’t figure out. On that note, Fred, Rudy, and Hillary are already half-way there.
