Brian Cicero @BCicero
The election has come to a close, and finally the incessant buzz campaigning is dying down. Living in North Carolina, a “battleground state”, I was inundated with at least 25 advertisements a day telling me that Barack Obama will bring down American culture as we know it, or that John McCain is a senile old fool who had George W. Bush sleep over at one of his seven houses each day of the week while they discussed political policies deep into the night. And let us not forget hearing that Kay Hagan is a godless harlot, Elizabeth Dole is 93rd in political “effectiveness”, and the thousand other issues that the thousand other candidates threw in each others faces over the last 4 months.
So now that the 24-hour a day news networks can no longer cover every point, counter-point, gaffe, and recent “Joe the Plumber” comment, the analysis of all said events can begin. How did Sarah Palin’s new jacket single-handedly destroy the entire McCain campaign? Or did John McCain himself not press hard enough during the debates? Or did Barack Obama’s not accepting public financing give him the means to pull off what could be considered the most historical political event of the new millennium?
All of these things could be argued back and forth until the next big story comes along, but what put Barack Obama over the edge was his using tech to reach voters in a way that had not been utilized ever before. Obama purchased ad space on websites like Facebook and Digg, both sites that new and young voters frequent. He even went so far as to purchase virtual billboards in nine different videogames such as Madden NFL ’09 and Burnout: Paradise.
Reminders of early voting, links to Obama’s website , and the constant promise of coming “Change” reached a constituency that McCain could not touch. Obama knew how to reach the 21st century American. The same way FDR’s “fireside chats” reached the American of the 1930s the way Herbert Hoover couldn’t. Or how JFK appeared vibrant and youthful on television, in sharp contrast to a gargoyle-faced Richard Nixon.
Barack Obama’s path to victory followed a trend that is as old as advertising itself. The latest technologies are the key to opening up the market to new clients as well as stimulating interest in existing ones. My only hope now is that Obama can use the brilliance he displayed in promoting himself on the campaign trail in the Oval Office.
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tagged as barack obama, politics
we need to review income tax return more thourghly. There are people claiming children that belong to other parents for a small price of 500.00 just to let them use their children to avoid or get more tax return. How is it that the goverment does not check school records or birth certificates and I really can not for the life of me understand how people on public assitance recieve a income tax refund when they stay home 5 days a week and the hard working people are up by 5 or 6am everyday. I feel this problem has contribute to our crisis. I wish someone would look into the matter now.
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