The news about John McCain’s campaign isn’t looking good. Or positive. The folks directing marketing communications have to juggle between keeping too many metaphors alive: Maverick, fighter, experienced politician etc. They forget McCain has another metaphor: celebrity — for the right reasons.

The trouble with going after Obama with the latest round of attack ads is that it earns him the metaphor that sticks too fast: desperate.

It doesn’t help when the media, that used to be supercharged with maverick-ism, is not so enamored with the tactic. The dirty little secret, however, is that the media loves it. It gives the campaign coverage a lot of juicy bits to savor. So why the McCain campaign serves up these silly hors deurs (like the Brittany/Hilton analogy) beats me. The public already know that Obama is a rock-star, politics aside.

In the end, since I am more interested in positioning not politics, McCain’s brand that the media loves is more durable, and he needs not try so hard to reposition the rock star. If his campaign lets McCain be McCain, he would pick a different kind of fight, the kind of fight he’s best known for –on policy. No glitzy Euro photo ops required.

No dumb YouTube videos, too.