This paper reviews and evaluates the heuristic status of political marketing as a metaphor for the generation of knowledge about politics and political affairs. In doing so, the uses and utility of analogies and metaphors derived from marketing theory in generating knowledge about political affairs are drawn out. In particular, the logic presumed to warrant making such analogies, thereby extending marketing theory's descriptive and predictive apparatus to politics and political affairs, is reviewed and subsequently submitted to criticism. It is argued here that, in order to make the claim for a distinctive and grounded theory of political marketing, this metaphor has to bring heuristic value to the study of politics and political affairs. Implications of the view of the political marketing metaphor presented in this paper for further theorising and research are discussed.