At a town hall event four years ago, I had an opportunity to ask US presidential candidate Kamala Harris the question, "What are you a fan of?" The answer she gave from the stage, “I love music… I am especially fond of Bob Marley,” was surprising in its honesty.
After the town hall concluded, we talked briefly about our shared love of Bob Marley. She told me about seeing him live at the Greek Theater in Los Angeles and I talked about seeing his last concert at the Stanley Theatre in Pittsburgh.
Here is a one minute video of those moments.
During the lead up to the 2020 presidential primaries I was finishing my book Fanocracy: Turning Fans into Customers and Customers into Fans. I thought it would be cool to ask the presidential candidates what they are a fan of, so I attended over twenty presidential candidate town hall events in New Hampshire, the first primary state.
I asked each candidate the same simple question: “Outside of your work and family, what are you a passionate fan of?” My question about what they are a passionate fan of is unusual and shows a little about who they are as an individual.
At presidential candidate town hall events, most questions are predictable. Candidates are asked about the issues of the day such as reproductive rights, guns, income inequality, taxes, healthcare, the opioid crisis, and so on. Each candidate has already worked up the answers to these questions. Heck, you can find the answers on their websites!
I wanted to ask Donald Trump the same question. I attended a Trump MAGA rally in 2020 however, he didn’t take Q&A. (I wrote about the Trump rally in a post titled Trump the Marketer: Non-Political Observations on Last Night’s NH MAGA Rally.)
I was excited that Harris was willing to share her love of Bob Marley in such a public setting. There were dozens of journalists covering her event, with video cameras rolling the entire time. Declaring her love of Bob Marley showed a great deal about her personality.
Some candidates ignore the directions of my question and talked about family. Others choose to pivot to a talking point.
Important note: This is a marketing blog, not a political blog. By analyzing and commenting on a Presidential candidate’s passions and their marketing strategies, I am not saying I do or do not support that candidate. This is simply a marketing analysis, something I have done over five presidential election cycles. Rather than commenting on any candidate’s views on the issues, I write about the US Presidential election because it is a massive marketing case study. You can read more of my analysis going back to the 2008 election here.