Friday, March 11, 2005
Can Campaigns Profit From Online Irreverence?
By Robert MacMillanwashingtonpost.com Staff WriterFriday, March 11, 2005; 8:57 AM
The Internet isn't referred to as the "online universe" for nothing. Like the universe, it embodies the quality of infinite expansion. And as both the universe and the Internet expand, they can produce works of colossal beauty and furious destruction with an alarming randomness.
So it goes with Internet politics. For nearly a decade now, the Internet has proved accommodating as well as frustrating to political imagemakers and idolmakers who puzzle over the question of how cyberspace can propel their candidates ahead of the competition and into office.
This question will rise again at the Politics Online Conference in Washington. The conference, in its 12th year, invites campaign professionals to thrash and hash over the best way to harness the Internet as the 21st-century candidate's ace of spades.
The roll of speakers and panelists usually consists of political professionals, online-journalism bigwigs and political bloggers. This year's gathering, which started Thursday afternoon and runs through today at The George Washington University in Washington, will see an unusual guest at this morning's session -- Gregg Spiridellis, who with brother Evan co-founded JibJab Inc. and co-composed (and co-performed) the animated music video "This Land Is Your Land."
Featuring cavorting caricatures of Sen. John F. Kerry and President Bush singing a demented version of the eponymous song, the cartoon ricocheted virus-like across the Internet in July. In a genre-jumping twist, "This Land" made enough news that it received mega-exposure on TV and radio and turned the brothers into accidental experts in political marketing.
And how could it not have? It's the kind of marketing that campaign managers dream about: Whip up a sassy, silly video for a few thousand dollars and watch it spread at the speed of light until it's getting prominently displayed on TV. Say hello to Letterman, Leno and the whole battery of those popular morning "news" programs -- round-the-clock exposure for a fraction of what it would cost to buy that kind of screen time.
Gregg Spiridellis conceded that "This Land's" success was blind luck, as his and brother Evan's interest in politics is "far secondary to our interest in entertainment." Their previous videos -- including a brilliant hip-hop-style lesson on the Declaration of Independence -- take their cue from the 1970s Saturday-morning Schoolhouse Rock shorts like "I'm Just a Bill," but with a way bigger dose of hip. The Spiridellis' cartoons are fun and educational, but the brothers are not trying to make a career in politics.
That didn't seem to bother the organizers of the Politics Online Conference, where the key question is whether "This Land" can translate into the solid-tie/blue-blazer, baby-smooching, whistle-stop bread-and-butter strategies of the old-time politicos' playbooks.
Carol Darr, head of George Washington University's Democracy Online Project and the conference's organizer, said pictures -- especially video -- can work well to appeal to a candidate's or party's base.
"Pictures have the ability to be so much more inflammatory than most prose," said Darr. "A candidate's position paper, as much as they like to have them forwarded around, doesn't get forwarded a whole lot."
But can going irreverent with a "This Land" knock-off work for a real campaign? The videos that tend to metamorphose into viral miracles usually contain a jolly rage against the machine. One of the best examples is the irritated office worker whose humdrum life in the cubicle suddenly goes flying outward like the Big Bang as he throws his keyboard and monitor into the hallway and proceeds to beat them into plastic smithereens. Others contain a comical political incorrectness that suits bipartisan slam-jobs a la "This Land" -- but that kind of edginess could cut both ways in a tough race.
Matthew Dowd, the Bush-Cheney campaign's chief strategist in 2004, acknowledged that "the bigger campaigns always have to struggle with 'How far do you push the envelope?'"
Just look at the past 40 years. Lyndon Johnson's "Daisy" ad blew a few minds in 1964. It was controversial to be sure, but even those of us who weren't born yet know that ad. Walter Mondale's 1984 campaign against Ronald Reagan even went so far as to recycle the theme, using wide-eyed children contrasted with images of missiles and nuclear death and destruction, all to the tune of Crosby, Stills and Nash's "Teach Your Children."
But by and large, the big campaigns like to push the envelope gently, not rip it to pieces and hope everyone approves. Sometimes that's because confabbing at the top levels of campaign operations isn't always compatible with the mentality required to release quick hits in Internet time. Take too long to consider the ramifications and the whole project could go stale, said Jonah Seiger, co-founder of the ConnectionsMedia LLC online campaign shop and co-organizer of the conference.
Peter Daou, the man behind the Kerry-Edwards campaign's blogging operation, said the shelf-life of online cool -- usually shorter than that of a freckled banana -- bewilders some old-school campaign professionals. "A lot of people are not really familiar with exactly what all this is," Daou said. "Some are actually hostile to it."
And why wouldn't they be? The professionals know now that the Internet is an indispensable part of the campaign arsenal, and that it can provide huge returns for minor investments. But beyond viral marketing, online missteps can light a bonfire that burns down a campaign.
One example was the 2004 presidential campaign of former Vermont governor Howard Dean (D). Campaign manager Joe Trippi is legendary for mobilizing small-dollar contributions on the Internet to pull in $45 million, more money raised in that way than ever before. But the Internet also provided the echo chamber for the infamous "Dean Scream."
No, the scream didn't tear down the campaign; Dean did not "live and die by the Internet" as the conventional "wisdom" has it. Nevertheless, the media's -- and the blogging universe's -- fetishistic replay of that superficial event on the Web and TV irrevocably tinted Dean with the hue of "crazy loser." And a footnote: All those millions raised online couldn't substitute for his lack of deep grass-roots support in states like Iowa. The Web offered a nice illusion to the contrary, but it was just that.
So it's unsurprising that today's A-list campaign professionals would be wary. But that could change. The volunteers and professionals who ran campaign Internet operations in the 2004 elections doubtless will be back. If 2008 rolls around and everyone is using the Internet for what its primary political purpose appears to be in campaigns -- getting the edge -- it may not even be a realistic option to play it safe online. After all, any candidate whose chief handlers shy away from what might be tomorrow's trend du jour could be suspected of not really wanting to win.
But even the candidates willing to step over the precipice must realize that the best genius moments, from Archimedes to JibJab, are usually accidents. "This Land" is no exception, Spiridellis said. "All of a sudden this thing spread across the globe. We were at the center of something we never expected."
And maybe this is the lesson for attendees at this year's Politics Online Conference: The Internet is no panacea, and unintended consequences can take your candidate on an incredible online ride.
As Dowd said, "In political campaigns, the unplanned is usually as important or more important than the planned."
© 2005 TechNews.com
By Robert MacMillanwashingtonpost.com Staff WriterFriday, March 11, 2005; 8:57 AM
The Internet isn't referred to as the "online universe" for nothing. Like the universe, it embodies the quality of infinite expansion. And as both the universe and the Internet expand, they can produce works of colossal beauty and furious destruction with an alarming randomness.
So it goes with Internet politics. For nearly a decade now, the Internet has proved accommodating as well as frustrating to political imagemakers and idolmakers who puzzle over the question of how cyberspace can propel their candidates ahead of the competition and into office.
This question will rise again at the Politics Online Conference in Washington. The conference, in its 12th year, invites campaign professionals to thrash and hash over the best way to harness the Internet as the 21st-century candidate's ace of spades.
The roll of speakers and panelists usually consists of political professionals, online-journalism bigwigs and political bloggers. This year's gathering, which started Thursday afternoon and runs through today at The George Washington University in Washington, will see an unusual guest at this morning's session -- Gregg Spiridellis, who with brother Evan co-founded JibJab Inc. and co-composed (and co-performed) the animated music video "This Land Is Your Land."
Featuring cavorting caricatures of Sen. John F. Kerry and President Bush singing a demented version of the eponymous song, the cartoon ricocheted virus-like across the Internet in July. In a genre-jumping twist, "This Land" made enough news that it received mega-exposure on TV and radio and turned the brothers into accidental experts in political marketing.
And how could it not have? It's the kind of marketing that campaign managers dream about: Whip up a sassy, silly video for a few thousand dollars and watch it spread at the speed of light until it's getting prominently displayed on TV. Say hello to Letterman, Leno and the whole battery of those popular morning "news" programs -- round-the-clock exposure for a fraction of what it would cost to buy that kind of screen time.
Gregg Spiridellis conceded that "This Land's" success was blind luck, as his and brother Evan's interest in politics is "far secondary to our interest in entertainment." Their previous videos -- including a brilliant hip-hop-style lesson on the Declaration of Independence -- take their cue from the 1970s Saturday-morning Schoolhouse Rock shorts like "I'm Just a Bill," but with a way bigger dose of hip. The Spiridellis' cartoons are fun and educational, but the brothers are not trying to make a career in politics.
That didn't seem to bother the organizers of the Politics Online Conference, where the key question is whether "This Land" can translate into the solid-tie/blue-blazer, baby-smooching, whistle-stop bread-and-butter strategies of the old-time politicos' playbooks.
Carol Darr, head of George Washington University's Democracy Online Project and the conference's organizer, said pictures -- especially video -- can work well to appeal to a candidate's or party's base.
"Pictures have the ability to be so much more inflammatory than most prose," said Darr. "A candidate's position paper, as much as they like to have them forwarded around, doesn't get forwarded a whole lot."
But can going irreverent with a "This Land" knock-off work for a real campaign? The videos that tend to metamorphose into viral miracles usually contain a jolly rage against the machine. One of the best examples is the irritated office worker whose humdrum life in the cubicle suddenly goes flying outward like the Big Bang as he throws his keyboard and monitor into the hallway and proceeds to beat them into plastic smithereens. Others contain a comical political incorrectness that suits bipartisan slam-jobs a la "This Land" -- but that kind of edginess could cut both ways in a tough race.
Matthew Dowd, the Bush-Cheney campaign's chief strategist in 2004, acknowledged that "the bigger campaigns always have to struggle with 'How far do you push the envelope?'"
Just look at the past 40 years. Lyndon Johnson's "Daisy" ad blew a few minds in 1964. It was controversial to be sure, but even those of us who weren't born yet know that ad. Walter Mondale's 1984 campaign against Ronald Reagan even went so far as to recycle the theme, using wide-eyed children contrasted with images of missiles and nuclear death and destruction, all to the tune of Crosby, Stills and Nash's "Teach Your Children."
But by and large, the big campaigns like to push the envelope gently, not rip it to pieces and hope everyone approves. Sometimes that's because confabbing at the top levels of campaign operations isn't always compatible with the mentality required to release quick hits in Internet time. Take too long to consider the ramifications and the whole project could go stale, said Jonah Seiger, co-founder of the ConnectionsMedia LLC online campaign shop and co-organizer of the conference.
Peter Daou, the man behind the Kerry-Edwards campaign's blogging operation, said the shelf-life of online cool -- usually shorter than that of a freckled banana -- bewilders some old-school campaign professionals. "A lot of people are not really familiar with exactly what all this is," Daou said. "Some are actually hostile to it."
And why wouldn't they be? The professionals know now that the Internet is an indispensable part of the campaign arsenal, and that it can provide huge returns for minor investments. But beyond viral marketing, online missteps can light a bonfire that burns down a campaign.
One example was the 2004 presidential campaign of former Vermont governor Howard Dean (D). Campaign manager Joe Trippi is legendary for mobilizing small-dollar contributions on the Internet to pull in $45 million, more money raised in that way than ever before. But the Internet also provided the echo chamber for the infamous "Dean Scream."
No, the scream didn't tear down the campaign; Dean did not "live and die by the Internet" as the conventional "wisdom" has it. Nevertheless, the media's -- and the blogging universe's -- fetishistic replay of that superficial event on the Web and TV irrevocably tinted Dean with the hue of "crazy loser." And a footnote: All those millions raised online couldn't substitute for his lack of deep grass-roots support in states like Iowa. The Web offered a nice illusion to the contrary, but it was just that.
So it's unsurprising that today's A-list campaign professionals would be wary. But that could change. The volunteers and professionals who ran campaign Internet operations in the 2004 elections doubtless will be back. If 2008 rolls around and everyone is using the Internet for what its primary political purpose appears to be in campaigns -- getting the edge -- it may not even be a realistic option to play it safe online. After all, any candidate whose chief handlers shy away from what might be tomorrow's trend du jour could be suspected of not really wanting to win.
But even the candidates willing to step over the precipice must realize that the best genius moments, from Archimedes to JibJab, are usually accidents. "This Land" is no exception, Spiridellis said. "All of a sudden this thing spread across the globe. We were at the center of something we never expected."
And maybe this is the lesson for attendees at this year's Politics Online Conference: The Internet is no panacea, and unintended consequences can take your candidate on an incredible online ride.
As Dowd said, "In political campaigns, the unplanned is usually as important or more important than the planned."
© 2005 TechNews.com
