Campaign 2008 & New Media
I had an interesting conversation with some friends about this topic the other night. It’s been on my mind for a while.
What it boils down to is that I want to work with a political candidates campaign to leverage new media. I want to help them effectively use the space to the fullest and not look like a fool doing it. I want to help them set up an appropriate campaign headquarters in Second Life. Get a podcast up and running where they actually embrace the conversation and engage the viewer/listener.
There are two specific candidates that I’d like to work with. John Edwards already gets the space, but I’d love to work with him. Barack Obama is another one who I’d love to help and I think is taking the steps in the right direction. I still reference his podcast episode when the White Sox won the World Series as proof that he understood the medium. There are others on the blue team that I’d be interested in working with and a few that I wouldn’t as well.
What makes me stop and ponder is what if another candidate approached me to help? I truthfully want to help as many people as possible understand new marketing and this big social playground that I love so much. But, could I do it for someone that I don’t support politically? That’s where I stop and really question things. I don’t think I could. I’m too stuck to my guns.
What about a company? I don’t know the politics of lots of the people I work with at crayon. So would we be able to take on any one campaign as a client? Not sure how that works. What does happen when your company takes on a client that you don’t believe in? Raises a lot of hmmmm moments in my brain. Noodle on it for a while and see what you come up with.
So this is a call out to the Obama and Edwards campaigns! I’m here to help.
Posted in
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Comments(5)
C.C.
This is an interesting question.
I think when you’re dealing with business and politics isn’t involved it’s easy to look past differences and help with succeeding in that business. When it comes to politics…you are helping someone whose whole job it is is to fight for things that you could be completely opposed to or in agreement with.
I think it gets interesting when you talk about taking on a client that you don’t believe in. This can go multiple ways. It can be that they stand for something you don’t believe in. It can also be a situation of the company not striving to truly do great things and differentiate themselves. Being stuck in the “status quo” if you will. This isn’t limited to taking on a client but can also apply to working internally at a company…trust me.
Here’s a challenging question:
Who would you go to bat for on the Red Team?
Would I even do that is an even bigger question?
Great, open discussion question CC. I really think a big part of this decade is about restructuring what money will and won’t buy you. With so many things of value being created for free by unpaid workers (the open source movement, podcasting in large part, online file sharing, etc.) people really have much more power to say “no thank you.” No thanks to clients who really don’t value the work being done for them as well as not taking on a client in the first place when there isn’t a “good” mix between client and vendor.
Good of course, is defined by each relationship. For me it is a commitment to enhance the bottom line of both companies while working with mutual respect and even admiration.
Doing it for the buck is getting fewer and fewer takers it seems to me.
You might. I know I would. It’s a firm belief of mine that having ANY one party in power for too long is bad for everyone. Opposition and divided government creates compromise and moderation, which is usually good, at least in my admittedly Sith-like opinion.