Does negative branding work? In the consumer product world, the answer is typically no. Companies simply don’t advance their interests by casting competitors in a negative light. What would be the benefit? In the movie industry, new films don’t demonize the offerings of other studios. Instead, they market the most appealing aspects of the film to attract audiences. Sports teams often go out of their way to praise opponents prior to a game, partly to avoid giving the other team an added incentive to win. In a more universal sense, branding works best and adds measurable value when it focuses on positive contributions that advance the welfare of society, whether in the form of new products that make life easier or services that support human and social needs. The one outlier (in the U.S., at least) has typically been politics. Negative campaigning is more memorable than new policy proposals designed to improve the quality of life, for example. A candidate’s past mistake, no matter how distant or insignificant, takes center stage and often becomes a primary reason why that person is unfit for office. And as the Republicans believed this past year, a uniform stance against healthcare by consistently saying ‘no’ would lead the bill to failure and serve as a big blow to President Obama’s Presidency. Instead, the healthcare debate over the past year culminated in the historic passage of this week’s sweeping healthcare legislation, and the Republicans mammoth effort to defeat the bill did not work. For once, the branding of ‘no’ in politics failed. Absurd distortions, a regular feature of political campaigns, were rampant over the past year (death panels, socialism, Obama as Hitler, among them). But those distortions failed to derail passage.

So where does this leave us? Will Republicans sweep the November elections in a wave of voter anger? Will healthcare be repealed in 2011? Without questions, there is discontent among selected blocks of voters. Yet there is also relief and a sense of optimism that something important and historically positive has occurred. Once the emotions die down in the weeks and months ahead, attention will shift to the economy and jobs, peace in the Middle East, and education, among other priorities. That does not mean that healthcare will be relegated to the back burner. But there are many other pressing issues that need addressing and I suspect that these will dominate the political landscape. Will the use of ‘no’ as a branding tool disappear in light of the Republican failure? Unfortunately, that is unlikely. Both parties have used negative campaigning to great effect over the years. But for now at least, the branding of ‘no’ failed.