Have you wondered, “Why all the orange?” The question has come up repeatedly during the campaign. “The orange buttons, the orange logo, the orange tie, the volunteers dressed in orange... where does that come from?”
Ben has a stock reply, “Orange is memorable and it ties my campaigns together. Using the same color helps each campaign contribute momentum to the next. It’s part of our brand.”
His answer sounds reasonable, but I’ve always believed there was more to it than that. In fact, early in my involvement with the campaign there were hints that orange was not simply a brand.
For instance, at headquarters Frank Sinatra is always on the sound system. Once I asked Ben, “Why Frank Sinatra. And why all the time?”
His response seemed irrelevant. “Frank’s favorite color was orange” he said, in a tone implying this was common knowledge.
“There’s a non sequitur,” I thought.
However, Ben is a smart man with a compelling personality, so I left it at that.
More recently Ben and his wife, Julie, were interviewed by the Chronicle. Ashley Sumner, our communications director, also attended.
After the interview Ashley called to say that Julie spoke about Ben’s first job. She told the reporter that as a mere fourteen year old boy he worked in a pumpkin patch. Ashley said the reporter smiled and asked Ben, “Do you have anything to add to that?”
For a moment Ashley was silent, so I spoke up. “Yes? What did he say?”
“The strangest thing. Ben asked the reporter to specify that it was ‘a very sincere pumpkin patch.’”
Ashley let that hang in mid-air for a moment. Then she asked, “What on earth could he mean by that?”
Suddenly, it became clear. I could put it all together...
- The rumors about Isaac’s birth and Ben holding out for the name “Linus”
- The questions about Ben coming home late every Halloween; dejected and with mud on his shoes
- Ben’s criticism of Mia Love for using a shade of orange “too unpumpkinlike”
“The what?” she asked.
“You’re too young. It comes from Peanuts and a character named Linus who believed, against all evidence, in the Great Pumpkin.”
“You’ve got to be kidding!” she objected in a voice half filled with shock, half filled with pleading.
“No, I’m not. Linus was a firm believer that on Halloween night The Great Pumpkin would rise out of whichever pumpkin patch he deemed most sincere. Then he would fly through the air delivering gifts to all the good children of the world.”
I let it sink in for a moment, then I continued, “So Linus was in a pumpkin patch every Halloween night, sometimes with Snoopy, and sometimes with his sister Lucy. But always there.”
Ashley sounded nonplussed, “And what did Charlie Brown think of all that?”
“Not much,” I responded, “and neither will the voters of Salt Lake County if this gets out.”
With a tone of resignation, Ashley replied, “Mitt Romney’s campaign... and they think they have a challenge.”
With that our conversation concluded. Poor Ashley. Maybe I shouldn’t have shared this with you, but I just knew that orange was more than simply a “brand.”
And now, I guess, you do to. But please, don’t pass this along to anyone else.
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