The President of New Media

Maybe it’s my age but for the first time ever I’ve found myself following the developments of the US Presidential Elections.

With just five days to go, the coverage on the BBC has been up to its usual standards, but I’ve been intrigued enough by the characters of the main players to have a look at their websites and see how they’re using the web to spread their message.

Arriving at the McCain site, www.johnmccain.com, I was greeted with a streamed video of the hopeful candidate that opens with the words (rather worryingly seeing as he’s also a Republican), “The last eight years haven’t worked very well have they?”

Unfortunately there isn’t a Sarah Palin gallery online (I did search for one, perhaps another indication of my advancing years) and I got quickly bored with the site and wandered off into the Web to see what else I could find. The most engaging item was the Republicans’ YouTube video satirising the ‘holiness’ of the Obama campaign (see more at http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/) being currently embroiled in a row over copyright.

Heading on over to the Democratic camp, I found www.barackobama.com much more new media savvy with lots of exciting, dynamic web content including BarrackTV, the RoadBlog, Obama Mobile, the choice of sixteen social network links and a button inviting me to ‘Donate Today and receive a free Obama car magnet’!

Obama has also used new media to target likely pockets of supporters including the Latino vote - www.vivaobama08.com features perhaps the only Mariachi song to include a mention of healthcare legislation.

All good multimedia stuff. Not only that, but whatever the outcome Barack will go down in history as the first President to use video game advertising to spread the message (‘Guitar Hero’ and ‘Burnout Paradise’). This is aimed at a target audience of 18-34 year olds in 10 key States before the election.

And finally, a 10-second search on YouTube came up with the song “I’ve got a crush on Obama” which has so far received 10 million views. A truly terrible video, only lifted by the magnificent lyric halfway through: “You’re into border security, let’s break the border ‘tween you and me”.  Enjoy. http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=wKsoXHYICqU