Today I had the chance to catch up on the stories picked up by the industry
rags. One that caught my eye was the
article that stated “Creatives Have a
Crush on Obama”. There is no doubt that there are countless videos dedicated to Obama, but what Ad Age
forgot to do was check their facts when it touts that the freshman senator from Illinois has
more grass roots efforts online.
Those of us in the social media industry define grass roots efforts as people who
have NOT been paid with campaign dollars to create the videos. Obama’s most watched videos were created for
pay and considered paid advertisements.
What Ad Age Left Out
There are a hundreds of creatives and more importantly tens of thousands of
real consumers who have formed real grass roots campaigns to help Hillary
Clinton. This is something incredible and underreported in the paid main stream media. What I have witnessed is something special and should be highlighted and rewarded.
From MySpace communities (over 100 of them) to HillarySpeaksForMe.com (a site dedicated to people professing the devotion to Hillary) to several lively FaceBook communities – Hillary’s support is truly grass
roots and the voice of America. My favorite outreach this week was the teams
of college kids at the University of Texas who used the New York network to gain the benefits of
operational knowledge to strengthen on the ground efforts.
Each campaign is using tactics that demonstrate
the power of social media paradigms and platforms (MySpace, FaceBook, Flickr, Eons and YouTube) that facilitate everyday people's conversations not paid creatives
and consultants. These people are demanding that their voices be heard this election
season.
Giving Hillary Equal Time
Here are a number of my grassroots favorites. (some of
which I have created)
Simply The Best
The Hillary Clinton Trailer
Experience To Take Us From Crisis
That is not to say that the Clinton campaign does not have a set of superb paid creative thinkers on the ground in Texas and Ohio today. They do and they are doing really well
considering the paid media coverage that Senator Obama is getting from “News”
organizations like CNN.
Being Sold A Well Defined Brand For President
There is not doubt that Obama is a well defined brand, but what troubles me is
that the American people believe that the new iPod will solve all our problems.
Seems to me we bought that iPod before – He was a compassionate conservative.
People / Candidates shouldn’t be looked at as well defined brands – brands are made-up
personas we give products to help give them a personality and a place in
peoples lives.
We do not need another brand
- We Need A President
We need a person to identify the problems and clean up a mess. Sounds more like a job interview for a person with a resume that gives a portfolio of past examples and work samples that
have stellar results.
What the main stream media fails to mention is that Hillary
does not need a brand as she personifies "Action" which is the biggest pay off
for an American consumer.
***Update: New Hillary Videos
Users of these communities have begun sending messages on other videos to highlight.
http://widgets.nbc.com/o/4727a250e66f9723/47c3739a78f9d8ac
http://web.splashcast.net/go/skin/FKOH2857KH/sz/wide
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