MixedMedia

NetSquared’s N2 Think Tank asks, “What was the best example or lesson learned about leveraging social media from the political campaigns this year? We saw candidates speaking to citizens through various mechanisms, but we also know that candidates have a lot more money than most of our nonprofit organizations (even if the tools are free, staffing and strategy development isn’t). What social media tools, tricks, and strategies were employed that could be used successfully with nonprofits?”

So I’m not going to talk about a particular technology (its pretty clear from basic data available that the Obama Campaign ran a stronger presence across pretty much all platforms and tools, and part of that is money and lessons from ’04 and netroots connections into the campaign HQ) but rather about something I sensed is very unique to this year’s contest, and to the Obama campaign in particular, which is this:

Appropriation and DIY messaging.What I mean is, I have a hunch that more people made more use of Barack Obama’s imagery – and made it their own – that at any time in history. At the same time, more people independently produced more images, videos, songs, raps, apps and sites to promote Barack Obama’s candidacy *in their own voice* than at any other time.I think this is powerful – politically, socially, and culturally.Early on, ad-inspired products like Obama Girl’s “I Got A Crush…On Obama” (barelypolitical.com, June 2007) set the tone for new conversation, hip-hop style throwing down the moves for a media discourse that would generate hundreds of hours of video, thousands of mb of imagery, etc etc. About the same time, Youbama.com went live as a space for user-generated campaign video. Some of the work, like Black Eyed Peas’ will.i.am’s stripped down and bare “Yes We Can” (February 2008) deepened the tone of the discourse and tapped the historical roots of the campaign. Moveon.org’s “Obama in 30 Seconds” (Moveon.org, March 2008) helped to wrap a political strategy around the appetite for DIY campaigning.

Thousands of videos were produced to promote Obama in different ways, including an October 2008 Obama-McCain dance off (with some crumpin from McCain).

Online social networks like facebook.com became a prime outlet for personalized Obama imagery on profiles – from his face to campaign logos. In the wake of attacks against Obama’s name and background, hundreds of profiles even saw the use of “Hussein” as an adopted middle name. I doubt there is data to track the proliferation of Obama imagery into social network profiles, but the “presence” of Obama within the online social space must have been huge as a result.

In the art world, in March 2008 the Obama campaign put up an online store that included art reproductions by urban artist Shepard Fairey. These had already become staple images of a DIY urban art campaign that used graffing, billeting, stenciling and other ways to push Obama imagery into the public mind. The Obama Art Report is one site tracking some of the accomplishments of this movement since June 2008. Street artists like Ron English created large-scale public works like “Abraham Obama” that tapped both the sense of history and opportunity inspired by Obama’s campaign along with a pop art sensitivity and, by engaging young artists and assistants from around New England, no doubt added fuel to the DIY arts movement that was so central to the success of the president-elect’s campaign.

I have a hunch that DIY product sites like Cafe Press turned out to be an excellent venue for creatives galvanized by this campaign to produce and distribute lasting goods bearing their imagery – and helped to promote a sense of cultural attachment to Obama like never before.

Finally, a quick search for Cafe Press items bearing Barack Obama imagery returns more than 58,000 items (John McCain? Around 29,000).

Got other examples to support this idea of appropriation and an unprecedented, multidisciplinary “Obama discourse” in art today? Share it here!