Wyoming Columnist Warns Voters About Political Imagery and Manufactured Campaign Appeals
Why It Matters
With Wyoming’s election season underway, voters across the state are being urged to apply critical scrutiny to political advertising that relies heavily on emotional symbols rather than substantive policy arguments. The appeal to Western imagery — particularly the cowboy archetype — has become a dominant feature of campaign messaging, raising questions about how effectively such tactics shape voter behavior.
What Happened
Rod Miller, a Wyoming native and columnist who grew up on a cattle ranch in Carbon County, is calling attention to what he describes as the calculated use of cowboy symbolism in political advertising aimed at Wyoming voters this election cycle.
Miller argues that candidates are flooding mailboxes and broadcast screens with imagery designed to manufacture emotional attachment rather than communicate policy. The visuals typically feature politicians posed beside horses, wearing new Western attire, or standing at rustic fences — settings chosen, he contends, to project authenticity that candidates haven’t actually earned.
The column draws on Miller’s firsthand experience working as a wrangler and background model on Marlboro cigarette commercials decades ago. He recounts that a producer from a major Chicago advertising firm told him the Marlboro Man image generated several billion dollars annually in tobacco sales — including to consumers in countries openly hostile to the United States, who nonetheless responded to the cowboy symbol.
The Psychology Behind the Pitch
Miller traces the origins of modern political advertising to Edward Bernays, a public relations pioneer of the early 20th century and a nephew of Sigmund Freud. Bernays developed techniques for using symbolic images and slogans to bypass analytical thinking and appeal directly to instinct and emotion.
According to Miller, political campaigns have applied this same psychological framework for generations. The goal, he writes, is to engage voters emotionally before their critical faculties engage — producing what he calls “ditto-ism,” an unreflective agreement driven by emotional resonance rather than reasoned evaluation.
He notes the staged quality of many campaign images: trigger fingers placed outside the guard as if coached, smiles that betray discomfort around large animals, and clothing that appears purchased specifically for the photo shoot rather than worn through actual ranch work.
By the Numbers
- The Marlboro Man advertising campaign generated an estimated several billion dollars annually in tobacco sales at its peak, according to Miller’s account of what he was told on set.
- Bernays developed foundational advertising and public relations theory in the early 20th century, roughly a century before today’s political media landscape.
- Miller notes the cowboy symbol has been a fixture of every election season for decades, not unique to any one cycle or party.
Zoom Out
The use of regional identity as a campaign tool is not unique to Wyoming. In rural states across the country, candidates regularly adopt imagery tied to agriculture, hunting, and working-class labor as a way to signal cultural alignment with voters. The phenomenon Miller describes — symbolic advertising intended to create emotional identification rather than convey policy — is a well-documented feature of American political communication at both the state and federal level.
Wyoming presents a particular version of this dynamic. The state’s strong association with ranching and Western heritage makes cowboy symbolism especially potent locally, and campaigns across both parties have leaned into that identity with varying degrees of credibility.
As Wyoming voters sort through campaign materials, crossover voting patterns and party dynamics are also shaping the broader electoral landscape in the state this cycle.
What’s Next
Wyoming voters will soon head to the polls, and Miller’s core argument is a straightforward one: understanding how political advertising works is the most effective defense against it. He stops short of endorsing any candidate or party, instead encouraging voters to evaluate messaging on substantive grounds rather than visual or emotional cues.
For those tracking local election administration, county clerks are preparing ballot-handling procedures and other logistical questions ahead of the vote.
The column closes with a pointed observation — that a genuine cowboy, by Miller’s reckoning, would be the first to see through the performance.