Trumblog

The following is an entry that I wrote a couple of months ago for a blog that I am no longer contributing to. It relates to some of the political issues that I wrote about the other day so I am including it here.

A month or two ago I was asked about the use of YouTube and MySpace in the 2008 Campaign. I opined that unlike the enormous impact that blogging and Meetup had on Howard Dean’s campaign in 2004 I felt that in 2008 we were unlikely to see a candidate who would not exist, but for YouTube or MySpace. Because these sites are mature today compared to the state of blogging 3 years ago, most campaigns will take advantage of them, but some more successfully or others. Using online marketing in a campaign is not newsworthy, but mistakes like the hacking of John McCain’s MySpace page or a “Macaca moment” are. This week though I saw videos from two candidates that clearly showed how one campaign “got” the medium and another didn’t.

Hilary Clinton’s campaign produced a Sopranos parody to tease her selection of a campaign song. The video is a dead-on fit with the YouTube audience and medium. It also serves the campaign. No more a Rhodes Scholar shrew, the Sopranos parody shows that Hilary doesn’t take herself too seriously. She shares the pop culture fixation on the Sopranos series finale and pokes fun at her family just like we all do. Of course, the video is about the selection of the campaign theme song, hopefully not the issue that we are using to select the next president.

Then there is Mike Gravel’s campaign, which has two videos, one of the candidate staring at the viewer then throwing a rock into a lake and another of Gravel collecting wood then sitting by a fire. Gravel’s videos are completely baffling to me. Neither has any voiceover or explanation. They remind me of the original zen-like Infiniti commercials and have the same result: interest but no sales. The ads have gotten Gravel some press on CNN and the Daily Show, which have both run mocking pieces about them. Gravel’s got name recognition now, but for the wrong reason.

Personally, it’s too early for me to be thinking seriously about presidential candidates. But whether you are selling a future president or a product you need to use the appropriate tone in the online medium of choice and make sure that you position yourself correctly. Where have you seen style and medium cla