For my senior honors thesis for the University Honors College at Oregon State University, I studied symbols within political branding.

If you wish to look at my full published senior honors thesis please click here.

For more information about the University Honors College please click here.

ABSTRACT FOR SENIOR THESIS:

IN POLITICS, a brand is what connects the public to the candidate or political party. In order to make a brand flawless, the product or candidate must be linked to the consumer. Symbols within a brand campaign are what make this possible. Political Symbols provide meaning for the audience to grasp beyond their own experiences, and also have the power to manipulate and distort realities on a large scale. Symbols play a vital role in creating support during a political campaign. Case studies of political branding symbols from around the globe will be analyzed, looking at the time period, country, symbol of use and ways in which it was used effectively or ineffectively. The paper will be concluded with a subjective analysis of social functions for political symbols, and how useful they are to the political process.