How Donald Trump Turned His Mugshot Into A $7 Million Marketing Lesson

Former President Donald Trump, soon after his arrest in Fulton County, Georgia, put his mugshot photo on a series of T-shirts, coffee mugs, koozies and posters, making the products available for purchase on his website. In a matter of days, Trump raised $7.1 million.

It was his fourth indictment this year, this time on felony charges related to his attempts to overturn the 2020 election, but the first time Trump, or any former president, had an arrest photo taken.

But if we’ve learned anything about Trump since he took the political stage for his 2016 presidential run, it’s that hyperbole is just a starting point for his brand of politics—and so is the same in the case of his mugshot.

This is paradoxical. A mugshot is typically perceived as a portrait of shame, a moment of disgrace—particularly for a public figure like a former president. However, despite the negative connotations associated with mugshot photos and their ability to make the abstractions of an indictment in the case of Trump feel more tangible, a receipt of potential criminality if you will, he has refashioned his mugshot into a symbol of strength.

Is it an artifact of disgrace or a symbol of strength? Well, that depends on how you see the world and subsequently make meaning of it. If you think the charges against Trump are baseless and politically motivated, you likely see his mugshot as a symbol of strength.

His menacing stare underscoring the ironic caption on the mugshot merch: Never Surrender. If you think there was indeed wrongdoing on Trump’s part, then you likely see the mugshot as shameful — and justified. And that’s the power of our worldview. Things aren’t the way they are; they are the way we see them.

We’ve seen this subversive refashioning of meaning with regard to the commercialization of mugshots before, whether it was Nelson Mandela, Malcolm X, or Rosa Parks. What was once meant to criminalize the actions and reputations of these abolitionists, were reworked as a symbol of resilience, rebirth, and resistance, respectively. Like Trump, their mugshots were also affixed to t-shirts and consumed by those who see these leaders as heroes, not criminals.

This applies directly to brands considering the fact that brands are inherently subjective. They are, after all, identifiable signifiers that conjure thoughts and feelings in the minds and hearts of people relative to a company, product, institution or person. The affects and cognitions that are catalyzed by brands are subject to the interpretation of those who perceive them.

The implication for marketers and business leaders in this regard is significant. Like in the case of Trump’s mugshot merch, the meanings ascribed to brands and branded products aren’t objective. Instead, meanings are subjectively constructed based on the cultural frames by which people translate the world around them. This act of meaning-making helps people decide what’s in and what’s out. What’s cool and what’s played. What’s for us and what’s not. The interpretation of said meaning helps us make sense of the world and ultimately informs what we consume and what we avoid.

Meaning is critical to consumption. The catch, however, is that marketers don’t make meaning — people do. Marketers signal intended meaning through advertising and refashioning — like Trump and his mugshot merch—but it’s people who do the actual meaning-making. Again, is it a disgrace or a symbol of strength? Is the brand hip, or is it lame?

It depends. But marketers don’t make this determination; they merely signal in hopes that people will interpret their message as intended, be it explicitly or implicitly communicated. People are the sole meaning-makers, and meaning congruence is achieved when the intended meaning of what is signaled is aligned with the meaning that people assign to it. That is to say, meaning is socially constructed, and therefore, it belongs to the people.

For business leaders, successful marketing requires understanding how people see the world and how they make meaning of it. This can make the difference between product adoption and rejection. As Intuit co-founder Scott Cook once asserted, “A brand is no longer what we tell the consumer it is; it is what consumers tell each other it is.” People make meaning.

Perhaps this is the most compelling aspect of Trump as a marketer—and dare I say, as a leader, more broadly. Despite his questionable character, not only does he know how his people make meaning, but he also knows how to communicate with them in such a way that he’s able to consistently achieve meaning congruence when he engages them.

Regardless of your political leanings, there is much to glean from his proximity and understanding of his people. Most brand marketers can only dream of that level of intimacy and influence with their consumers. But it’s achievable. We just have to get closer and apprehend the world through the cultural lenses by which they translate it.