Voter-Generated Content: PunditKitchen.com
PunditKitchen.com makes politics fun- no lie. User’s add comical (although this varies depending on you) captions to photographs of the presidential candidates.
i.e.
and
And do the user’s interpret these captions? Well, it depends on their political allegiances.
My assessment:
Politics can get boring as hell. Thanks for making room for the the audience that enjoys a little laughter here and there Punditkitchen. User’s get interactive in the political process, even if it’s just making fun of a photograph of a presidential candidate. The celeb gossip industry does it all the time and makes ga-jillions! Why should presidential candidates be excluded from any of this? Let’s not forget, this type of medium keeps people talking…
Republicans for Obama in 30 seconds
No, really.
Voter-Generated Content: AmigosdeObama.com
Please take a moment to visit AmigosDeObama.com and listen to the catchiest tunes prompting people to vote Obama for president. A traditional mariachi bands sings Viva Obama in a music video posted on the homepage of the website. There is also a reggaeton rendition of an Obama song!
The site is neither affiliated with nor funded by the official Barack Obama campaign. It’s creator, Miguel Orozco was just simply inspired by Obama, which prompted him to reach out to his own latino community in support of Obama.
My assessment:
This is golden, especially when Obama needed/needs to garner the Latino/Hispanic vote. The power of the individual user is awesome. Our HR lesson of today: diversity of perspective yields diversity of audience and some other really cool stuff. Would you use your special skills to promote an individual or organization for free? Well, fans of celebrities create unofficial websites for themall of the time. What makes political candidates any different? There is a difference this time around because people are actually frickin’ interested in this election, and they are particularly interested in Obama.
Voter-Generated Content: Youmail.com
Please excuse my lateness, but I recently discovered Youmail.com and I think it is so cool. It’s a site that allows you to choose a preset Voicemail (vmail) greeting for your mobile phone. I particularly like the politically-oriented vmail greetings like the ones that prompt a caller to vote for a presidential candidate (i.e. Obama).
Youmail vmail greeting script: The person you are calling is not available. Please leave a message after the tone, and don’t forget to vote for Barack Obama. (Listen Here)
Youmail offers tons of user-generated vmail greetings.
My assessment:
The Obama ringtones were so corny to me, and I thought they could have been a little more creative. The idea of a subtle vmail produced by a user is just sheer genius. I mean, how many times a day does a person reach someone’s vmail? A frickin’ lot, Scott! So, this Youmail thing allows you to send your callers with a call-to-action. TANGENT: It makes me think about the little music-filled ipods that decorate the ears of so many teenagers. If only those teens (i.e. my brother) were listening to foreign language lesson plans or the like. He and his friends could be linguistic geniuses, right now! Don’t get it twisted, I have a music-filled ipod, as well, but its not on my ears for the the full 3 hours+ of play time.
In any case, back to the Youmail device, a caller can be reminded to vote for Obama EVERY SINGLE TIME they reach a person’s vmail. This is super powerful, you know! (Shameless plug).
Voter-Generated Content: Youtube
Obama’s responds to questions about the war in Iraq and the meaning of his name on 5.22.08
This video was filmed by recoveringatty11
My assessment: 1) Cell phones are awesome, especially when bulky video cameras aren’t even permitted at most venues. 2) Obama is a real person. The rumors are true. He’s a real person. Tall, dark, and handsome (you were thinking it, too) – a real person. This is not some Big Brother stuff. A person can walk into one of his rallies and really see a real person. He’s articulate as ever, and his name has significant meaning – blessed. Aww. This is real politics in action.
The Left Has Data. The Right is Pulling Strings.
A week’s assessment…
The Right:
The birth certificate stuff is like SO last year.
“D’OH bama”? C’mon now. Really?
When will everyone get the hint that really bad things happen when kids have access to guns?
Like you have NEVER a seen a “website under construction” pop-up in your lifetime.
I dare say the master’s of spin were birthed from the current administration.
And you haven’t done the happy dance?
Obamessiah? Now that’s just blasphemous.
The Left:
Let’s talk about the issues.
___
The Right has found their most canny way to support their candidate- smear the heck out of Obama’s name and character.
The Left has found their most canny way to support their candidate- show that McCain doesn’t have many friends online or offline.
As we get close to the election, much of the Right and Left attacks will get old. The American people will want to know the real juice about what each candidate is going to do when he is elected president. The question of whether Obama is a muslim terrorist hiding in Hussein brand sheep’s clothing as he fist bumps with Iraqi insurgents will dwindle. The question of whether McCain will really go insane as he ages in office faster than humanly possible and signs a law instating 100 years of Iraq will dwindle, as well.
My assessment of the conservative and liberal blogosphere is that the Right is hella happy about their candidate and the Left wishes they could’ve got a better guy- but, for loyalty’s sake, they gotta support him.
One blog. Two blog. Three blog. Four. Right blog. Left blog. True blog? What for?
Gotta love that childhood Dr. Suess spirit, eh?
Truth - a verified or indisputable fact, proposition, principle (ooo)
Lie - a false statement made with deliberate intent to deceive; an intentional untruth; a falsehood (ahhh)
The question is: how can you really tell the difference? As an undergrad Philosophy major, I understand truth to be….ahh effit.
I recently sat down to peruse the landscape of the conservative and liberal blogosphere – not by choice, but I enjoyed it. In any case, I am confused- a condition I often find myself inhabiting. So, why does the Right prefer McCain and the Left prefer Obama? Oh that’s right. Because one’s a Republican and the other’s a Democrat, duh! But, clearly there are some fundamentally opposing beliefs between the camps not to mention the individual candidates are dishing out plenty of WRONG information, right? Ah, who knows. My conclusion: everything is speculation- from the “projected, potential, possible winner” (oh, there goes that alliteration again) in the polls to who the hell is actually going to assume the role of US President in November.
Well, now that Hillary’s out, at least this election has gotten a lot more interesting.
Proof our economy’s in a recession.
1) We can’t find anything substantive to talk about.
2) We think everyone’s a terrorist (fist jabber).
3) We bring in the body language consultant for advice.
4) We take the time to find random pictures of former jabbers.
I’ll just go back to the old Washington Post motto on this one…If you don’t get it, you don’t get it.
Thanks, McDonald’s, but I’d prefer to do it myself.
When the McDonald’s management team sat down at the table to discuss the cream and sugar option in the coffee cups of their customer’s, what were they thinking? Please, someone, let me know.
When did they think it was okay for the clerk (or whatever Mickey D’s calls their team members- because back in the day I was a proud Starbucks “Barista“) to put cream and sugar in the customer’s coffee cup.
And, when I was asked how many packages of “creams” and “sugars” I wanted in my coffee, I was perplexed. (Yes, I am a completely over analytical person at times, and yes it often keeps me from making decisions, but in any case I was perplexed I tell you.)
“Give me as many as you can,” I said, “I like my coffee creamy and sweet.”
“Can you give me an exact number,” the clerk replied, “I can give you as many as 20.”
Damn! I was perplexed, once more. Not wanting to be wasteful, I settle for five creams and five sugars.
Sip…blah…the coffee wasn’t sweet enough for me. Not wanting to be a bother, I drove off. I skipped the pleasure. I just needed the caffeine, anyway.
