During a Republican debate last December, President Francis Underwood won the night with his Reagan-esque campaign ad, which broke up the monotony of real Super PAC attack ads and candidate-endorsed messages.

With these ads for Netflix’s “House of Cards” the show has started spreading the Democratic president’s campaign in the real world.

A campaign office opened in in Greenville, South Carolina under Underwood’s name last week. Painted banners and billboards around the country bear Underwood’s name and his faux slogans: “Anything for America,” “Whatever it Takes” and my personal favorite, “Inequality, Dishonesty and Entitlement.”

Netflix normally advertises itself as a whole, showing compilations of its original programs and the other shows and movies it streams.  But as one of Netflix’s biggest symbols of achievement, “House of Cards” has earned its own advertising.  This political drama was the first Netflix original to take off, and every other show since owes its funding to its success.

However, the main reason Underwood gets ad money to spend is because the plot matches the current election cycle so well.  Season three ended just before the 2016 New Hampshire Primary, and season four will likely feature the election throughout its 13 chapters.  So, it makes perfect sense to advertise the show and Underwood himself like he’s a real life candidate.  Even his website, FU2016.com, easily passes as a real campaign website — it has merchandise and a better social media presence than real candidates.

The show also lucked out with the insanity of this election.  Lots of ideologues and underdogs are winning.

Putting Frank into the spotlight of this election begs the question: How would President Underwood be fairing against this crop of candidates?  He has the power and intensity to match the fist-fight Republicans are in, plus a reputation as a Democrat who can compromise to get things done.  You’d have to imagine that he would destroy any of these remaining candidates in a debate. Francis vs. Bernie Sanders, Francis vs. Donald Trump, Francis vs. Ted Cruz — none of them come close to striking the fear in you the way Underwood does.

“House of Cards” already has a Warren Buffett character in Raymond Tusk, and a Vladimir Putin knock off in Victor Petrov, so don’t be surprised if a large, rich, orange, buffoonish character joins the race this season.  It would be interesting to see Netflix go all out and buy ad space for all of the fake candidates. But doing so for Underwood is still a perfect way to market the show, especially as its popularity in TV culture remains high.

Whether or not the story was planned to match the real life election cycle does not matter.  The people behind the promotion of the fourth season of “House of Cards,” which returns to Netflix March 4, have taken full advantage of a perfect opportunity.

Kyle Stevens is a sophomore advertising major. His column appears weekly in Pulp. You can email him at ksteve03@syr.edu or reach him on Twitter at @kstevs_.

Published on February 21, 2016 at 7:43 pm