Cole's main campaign strategies captured the essence of him as a populist, and tried to appeal to working-class people, picturing him as their "working class mayor". He made frequent use of slang phrases and slogans, and made a point of using simple language in public while almost always speaking in the third-person while describing his accomplishments. He appealed to common sense when describing current events and explaining public administration strategies, something that political observers acknowledged as being extremely effective, while critics dismissed as demagogy.