Obama fighting back offensive rumors with Fightthesmears.com
Posted by Manuela Barreto @ July 16th, 2008 in Viral Marketing
I have been bombarded with election-related material for the past few days, hence my inclination towards writing politically-related posts.
But I must say that despite the miracles of the Internet and the ease in which news, gossip, and everything else is disseminated through it, the same has been causing quite a stir chez Obama.
But the straw that broke the camel’s back was The New Yorker’s latest illustrated cover depicting the Obamas as you can see in the image below.
The illustration shows a satire of how the Obamas are seen through the eyes of their enemies. It conglomerates images epitomizing Obama as a Muslim and wife as a terrorist. It shows him wearing a traditional Muslim garb, sandals and a turban. His wife on the other hand, has an Afro, is dressed in camouflage and is holding a rifle around her back. Obviously, for the Obamas, this is not funny at all.
Even though The New Yorker claims that the image “combines a number of fantastical images about the Obamas and shows them for the obvious distortions they are,” many readers will see it as offensive.
The burning flag, outfits, the fist-bump, Osama Bin Laden’s painting on the wall… is just way too much to handle.
To retaliate against all rumors and presumptions that have been going around about Obama’s origin, birth certificate, whether he’s truly Catholic or Muslim, his wife making derogatory references to white people…Obama’s campaign decided to fire back with what they know how to do best- viral marketing- to communicate the real truth.
They launched a website, FightTheSmears.com, and its purpose is to eradicate rumors and bring the truth to light.
The problem though is that we’ve seen how successful viral marketing, word of mouth, email marketing have been and how everyone can express their political views and beliefs with their communities, friends, etc. However, the reality is that these days anyone with a computer and internet can either build or destroy…unfortunately there are lots who choose the second option.
Last 5 posts in Viral Marketing
- Another Facebook twitterization, the "via" feature - January 19th, 2010
- Future whereabouts of viral video, mobile and online display advertising - January 5th, 2010
- Let's all Wave Goodbye to 2009 - December 23rd, 2009
- Leveraging technology and social media to create Buzz - July 31st, 2009
- Word of Mouth Marketing: How to get people to talk about you - June 18th, 2009
Comments
Blog Marketing Journal
July 16th, 2008
Ok the fact that Obama’s team quickly responded to something like this by launching a website is brilliant. He hired the right people.
m.barreto
July 17th, 2008
Yes, good move indeed! they wasted no time whatsoever…