The Politics of Candy

Mike Shannon    Chocolate Thumb

Americans prefer chocolate over flowers for Valentine’s Day. 

At least, that’s what a recently released national survey of Americans showed. The poll was conducted by the National Confectioners Association (NCA), the DC-based trade association of candy makers. 

The NCA’s use of campaign-style polling to trumpet its members’ products is smart marketing and sweet politics. With Valentine’s Day candy sales expected to top $1 billion, there is a lot at stake.

This got us thinking about the politics of candy.

Over the years, we’ve examined the partisan differences in consumer categories like cars (Democrats prefer Subaru), beer (Republicans drink Sam Adams), sports (Democrats love the NBA) and restaurants (Republicans like their Cracker Barrel).

If you’re buying candy for your sweethearts this week, it’s worth considering what it might mean about your – or their – politics. There’s a lot at stake, after all.

To help you out, we’ve analyzed MRI data, which includes 50,000 interviews with American adults, to determine the politics of candy consumers, as shown in the above bubble chart.

What does it all mean? 



READ FULL ARTICLE IN WASHINGTON POST: http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/govbeat/wp/2014/02/12/valentines-special-what-your-candy-says-about-your-politics/
(Co-authored by Will Feltus (@WillFeltus) is the Senior Vice President for research and planning at National Media in Alexandria, Virginia.)