Will Obama rebrand the Presidency?
Well a lot of people were hoping for an Obama victory (including, on occasion myself), and it looks like they got their wish. Obama obliterated his rival John McCain, through what is undoubtedly the most expensive largest and most well managed presidential campaign in American history.
What many are wondering though, is since his campaign was so marketing based, can Obama live up to the hype? Others have asked, since the campaign was so well managed, will the presidency be as well?
Well it seems that we already have some indication, after only a couple of days since Obama became ‘President Elect’, there is already ‘Change’ afoot, albeit in website form, it seems Obama’s campaign team has not abandoned him now he’s won the contest, and the slick design aspect of Obama’s approach continues. His team, now called the ‘Obama-Biden Transition Project’ has set up a website that may point the way forward to how he’ll manage the presidency, Change.gov
This website, seemingly as well designed as his original BarackObama.com site, sets out what Obama plans to do and continues several aspects of that site, including a blog. Now the last person I want to sound like is the guy who told John Oliver that it was incredibly important that the next president be able to use Flickr and Twitter. But online seems to herald the most changes, at least in the short term.
It seems that was for the best that I wasn’t addicted to Obama’s social presence, (at least for the moment), since Obama’s twitter has been dormant ever since he (or once of his staffers) thanked those who helped “make history” on the 5th, and Obama’s flickr was last updated on the 6th with photos of Obama with family of before and during Obama’s victory, and later speech. From the looks of it, these were used simply campaign tools to gather support from an internet savvy audience, and there is no sign of those earlier tools (apart from that blog) on the President Elect’s new site.
Does this abandonment of internet tools mean that when Obama becomes president, even this blog and site will go? Or should we see the Change site as a sign of something more?
I mentioned earlier the slick design that the original BarackObama.com site and the Change.gov site both share, however I don’t know much about how much power the President gets over their identity or that of the white house, but I would bet that if Obama’s team could change it, they would. This from the team that caused such a raucous by giving Obama a seal before he was even elected (see image above).
Will Obama rebrand the Presidency? And will his online efforts change politics forever? I don’t know, but there’s always the… hope.
PETA Offers (Pathetic, Acid Laced) £500,000 reward for Death Free Meat
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Now I’m a vegetarian, but I have a feeling the following is only a half hearted effort. Peta is offering $1 million prize to a scientist who can create meat without killing animals and have it marketed in the United States at competitive prices to traditional meat.
According to Wikipedia PETA has a annual revenue of $25 Million, so is their offer really serious. As I and many other vegetarians have realised, with proper effort such a product can be made and marketed, but as the blogs who have analysed the press release have said, why do PETA insult those it wants to persuade? Reading the release it’s easy to see it’s a publicity stunt to promote vegetarianism, rather than a serious move to save animals in the long term, it’s such a disappointment.
I realise that PETA is an organisation full of disgruntled angry vegans and vegetarians, but sometimes it pays to be a little less pushy. I hope that one day we can have death free meat (I’m sure we can), after all most meat flavoured crisps have been vegetarian for some time. But acid-laced PR crap isn’t going to do it.
Source: Gizmodo
Earth Day: The Green Ad Effect
Divine Caroline has a great article about how while green and environmentally conscious ads are more memorable, they may not be having the desired effect of convincing consumers. Sustainable marketing is a big issue (I’ve been learning about it), for more and an excellent gallery of some quality green campaign ads check out the article.
Earth Day: Dove’s Deforestation Dedication
Unilever make many a product that you or I know, like Dove toiletries, Flora and Becal butters, Pot Noodle and Persil laundry detergent. But did you know that all these products contain palm oil? Palm oil is widely blamed for the deforestation occuring in third world countries, devastating our environment and lining the pockets of big business who as you can see, use it in almost any and all products. As it’s earth day I thought I’d bring this to the attention of my many readers, please watch the video below.
BBC News refreshes its look, and brand.
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The BBC has once again done a half million pound ($1 Million) renovation to their News division, changing and reinforcing their brand, and changing their look.
The BBC keeps refreshing their look based on the same basic idea that was concocted back in 1999, the beaming radio waves, spinning globes and the moving words. Oh the moving words.
So now, the BBC, asking for ‘Simplicity’ Lambie Nairn has provided the same answer as the designers of Special K did, plenty of white space to differentiate the product. As for the globe, instead of emitting radio waves, it is made of them.
The Telegraph seeks attention by saying the new look is nauseating, I wouldn’t go that far, but I don’t exactly like the new look. I would agree the look was a bit stale, but the new versions seem a bit strange.
What I do like is the brand changes. If you ever found yourself calling the BBC’s 24 hour news network ‘News 24′, or calling their 10pm News bulletin “The Ten O’Clock News’ the BBC wants to get rid of your kind. How? ‘BBC News 24′ is now called just ‘BBC News’, (which it should have been called all along) ‘24′ never matched the BBC’s other 4 numbered channels, so it makes sense to just call a spade a spade.
There is one problem however, being that nobody at the BBC knows what to call it. Is it BBC News, or the BBC News Channel? The website seems to be the centre of this confusion, and the word ‘channel’ reminds me of the ill fated ‘ITV News Channel’, so I think the BBC should avoid it at all costs. The other big change is that international channel, ‘BBC World’, is to be renamed ‘BBC World News’, the channel no longer contains as much general interest content like Top Gear, and it now tends to resemble BBC News with adverts, so it makes sense to have the change. Unfortunately the channel now has a terrible logo, but the name is good in my opinion.
Finally the 10 O’Clock News and the like are to be known as the ‘BBC News at Ten’ etc. All part of getting the ‘BBC News’ brand in your head, you see. It’s “dying” apparently, in a world of aggregated news where no one is sure where the source is.