CASE STUDY
Donald Trump Presidential Campaign, 2016
WHEN
February 28, 2016 (Season 3, Episode 3)
WHERE
HBO and YouTube
PRACTITIONERS
John Oliver and Last Week Tonight Team
FURTHER INSIGHT
John Oliver Website
Last Week Tonight with John Oliver YouTube Channel
CONTRIBUTED BY
Selene McConachy
Amidst confusion about Donald Trump becoming the front runner for the Republican Party, Last Week Tonight with John Oliver became the first show to provide in-depth investigation into what the “Trump” name means and why he gained such popularity as a Republican candidate. Oliver used investigative journalism and comedy to reflect on the party’s decision, and concluded the segment by promoting his own campaign slogan, “Make Donald Drumpf Again.”
The purpose of this campaign is to separate the man from the brand. “We were trying to separate the king of mascot of Donald Trump from- from the man... and so we wanted to... find a division so you could look at him with fresh eyes...” said John Oliver. The team found the solution in Gwenda Blair’s biography about Trump, The Trumps: Three Generations of Builders and a President, which mentions a “prescient ancestor” that changed the family name from ‘Drumpf’ to ‘Trump’.
To support the campaign, Oliver promoted hats reminiscent of Trump’s own campaign hats, but with the words “Make Donald Drumpf Again” as opposed to “Make America Great Again”. Only a few weeks after the episode was aired, they had sold 35,000 hats. The team behind Last Week Tonight also created a free Google Chrome Plugin (“Drumpfinator”) that automatically changes any appearance of Trump’s last name into “Drumpf”. Oliver concluded the episode with a barrage of insults against Trump, all while standing in front of a large lit sign with the name, “Drumpf”.
The video quickly went viral, and as of May 2nd, 2017, the YouTube video has over 32 million views. Episodes on the Last Week Tonight YouTube channel typically range from 10-15 million views.
Since that episode, Oliver has discussed Trump in 13 separate episodes, ranging from a short segment to devoting the whole episode to him. (This does not include brief mentions of Trump or the episode about Jared Kushner and Ivanka Trump.) Oliver concluded the show’s Season 3 finale with the statement, “Keep reminding yourself, ‘This is not normal.’ ... Because a klan-backed, misogynist internet troll is going to be delivering the next State of the Union address, and that is not normal- it is fucked up.”
Oliver has frequently argued he is not a journalist, particularly in a segment about the field of journalism, stating, “... Stupid shows like ours lean heavily on local papers- in fact, whenever this show is mistakenly called journalism, it is a slap in the face to the actual journalists whose work we rely on,” (Season 3, Episode 20). In an interview with Jorge Ramos, Oliver was questioned about his relationship to journalism:
Ramos: “Are you a journalist?“
Oliver: “No! No, I’m not, I’m a comedian.”
Ramos: “But you’re doing the job of a journalist.”
Oliver: “No, I’m doing the job of a comedian... I make jokes about the news, so I’m pretty clear about the lane that I’m in.”
The United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) defines investigative journalism as, “the unveiling of matters that are concealed either deliberately by someone in a position of power, or accidentally, behind a chaotic mass of facts and circumstances - and the analysis and exposure of all relevant facts to the public.” According to this definition, despite Oliver’s claims, the show does in fact qualify as journalism. In 2014, the Peabody Board agreed with this sentiment and awarded Last Week Tonight with John Oliver a Peabody Award. The Peabody Awards website’s profile of the show states, “His resolve not simply to explore headline news, but to pull back the proverbial curtain and show us the subtle mechanics at work in our nation’s democracy and culture is to be commended. For bringing satire and journalism even closer together, Last Week Tonight with John Oliver receives a Peabody Award.”
Oliver lists one of his primary fears regarding the Trump administration as complacency. “Optimism is nice if you can swing it but you’ve got to be careful, because it can feed into to the normalization of Donald Trump, and he is not normal... So giving him a chance in the sense of not speaking out immediately against policies that he’s proposed is dangerous.” During an interview on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert, he said, “I think the problem really arises when you get punchdrunk... It’s easy to be angry on adrenaline, right, but it is much much harder when you are just tired, and this is going to be exhausting.” However, after the show’s newest episode (entitled, “Stupid Watergate”), Oliver states he is no longer concerned about complacency: “At the end of last year, we told you to write down, ‘This is not normal’ to guard yourself against getting complacent. I don’t think there is much danger of that happening in the foreseeable future, but it is also worth remembering that sentiment to just reassure yourself that you’re not going crazy.”
WHY IT WORKED
John Oliver brought an issue to the forefront and objectively analyzed its worth. At the time, Trump was gaining many followers, and the media was largely confused or unable to justify the reasons why. Furthermore, the consistent media attention against Trump only created a stronger force in his favor. Oliver used his platform to investigate the reasons why many Americans were choosing to vote for Trump and effectively debunked all of them. The show concludes by separating the man from the brand, stating all positives only go as far as the Trump name. By looking at the two separately, viewers could assess Donald Trump, or Donald Drumpf, based on his personal merits.
KEY TACTIC USED
IDENTITY CORRECTION: This tactic can effectively take a powerful figure, like Donald Trump, and bring him to a human level. Instead of regarding Trump as the celebrity, audiences can now regard him as the individual. By correcting the misconception of his name and brand, Last Week Tonight with John Oliver reframed the discussion about Trump as a future president.
OTHER TACTICS USED:
Detournement/ Culture jamming p. 28
Strategic nonviolence p. 88
KEY PRINCIPLES AT WORK
REFRAME: The old story is the faith in the Trump name- the new story is Trump himself. By separating his brand from his beliefs, the audience can assess his candidacy more effectively. The “Drumpf Episode” uses narrative power analysis to investigate underlying assumptions associated with Trump, assumptions that are not present for the other presidential candidates, and prove them wrong. This episode effectively shifted the conversation from “Why Trump?” to “No Trump.”
SEEK COMMON GROUND: This episode was effective due to its acknowledgement of the opposition. At the beginning of the episode, John Oliver admits to liking Donald Trump to an extent: “... I do understand why Trump supporters might like him, he’s unpredictable and entertaining.” This is especially critical in activism to avoid ostracizing those who disagree or are unsure about the topic, which is arguably what mainstream media failed to do.
SHIFT THE SPECTRUM OF ALLIES: The Last Week Tonight team created a story that exposed Donald Trump’s successes for what they were. The main beliefs the episode addresses includes:
- “He tells it like it is”
- “I honestly believe he’s telling the truth”
- “He’s funding his own campaign, nobody owns him”
- “He’s aggressive and he’s strong and he’s bold”
- “He’s an incredible businessman”
By attacking these fundamental beliefs of Trump supporters the episode effectively shifts neutral parties, passive opposition, and active opposition into active and passive allies.
OTHER PRINCIPLES AT WORK:
Brand or be branded p. 104
Bring the issue home p. 106
Choose your target wisely p. 114
Show, don’t tell p. 174
NEW PRINCIPLE
Investigation, Entertainment, Education
There are numerous issues that are not only difficult to understand, but also require arduous research. Most people are often unwilling or unable to investigate a single issue, no matter how important it may be. Furthermore, focusing on a singular issue often requires a great deal of patience as not all subjects, such as net neutrality, are entertaining for the general public. Therefore disseminating well-researched information in an entertaining way can not only reach, but also teach a wider audience.
This principle is focused on using one’s resources to investigate an issue and present the issue in a way that is both entertaining and educational. This can apply to a specific issue, event, organization, or an individual. The entertainment aspect is especially key in this day and age; by making the issue easier to understand it becomes more accessible to a wider demographic. Last Week Tonight with John Oliver frequently uses this principle; by taking relevant issues and explaining them through an entertaining set of graphics, clips, and comedy, Oliver can educate more people about hard to grasp topics, from special districts to multilevel marketing.
All three aspects of this principle are absolutely critical for the process. To understand a topic, one must investigate both sides of the issue thoroughly and objectively. Then the information must be developed in such a way that is both easy to understand and share. Entertainment is one of the most difficult steps, because few people are willing to put in the work and/or time to understand an issue that is boring and/or time consuming. Last Week Tonight’s combats this by presenting the information in short segments that transition easily together. When explaining a particular aspect in more detail, Oliver uses comedy to compare it to something else. For example, when interviewing Edward Snowden, all questions regarding the various programs involved in surveillance were asked in the context of sending a “dick pic”. Finally, the goal of this principle is education. To make the information entertaining and understandable to the point that it can easily be understood, referenced, and discussed in the future. With the combination of these three elements, activism can reach a far larger scope and have a much stronger impact.
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