Blog profile
After learning that my high school stint at McDonald’s wouldn’t get me a job at a mag, I worked as a freelance journalist for a few years. With much haggling and many annoying phone calls, I got a job at Cosmo! As web ed, no two days are the same – some days I’ll be at a video or photo shoot, others I’m interviewing celebs or updating myself on the latest goss (all for research purposes, obviously).
Apart from that, I have a healthy addiction to cupcakes, clutches and Christian Bale. I once watched a VH1 countdown of ‘The 50 Most Awesomely Bad Songs Ever’ and was proud to announce that I loved every last one of them. I’m very good at tripping over, talking too loud and saying the wrong thing at the wrong time. Oh … and in an acrostic poem that my friends wrote about me, the “e” in my name stood for “embarrassing.”
Blog archive
- 2008
-
April
-
May
-
June
-
July
-
August
-
September
-
October
-
November
-
December
- 2009
-
January
|
Thu 14
World wide Obama
Put your money where your mouse is
Last year, John Howard and Kevin Rudd duked it out in the most exciting Federal election in years.
It was exciting for a number of reasons. First, because it signalled a true season of change in Australian politcs. For the first time in years, the ALP offered a formidable contender for John Howard. Second - and most importantly - the contender, Kevin Rudd, captured the most significant cache of voters very early in his campaign: young people.
He earned the nickname K. Rudd (did anyone ever call Howard 'J.Ho'? Don't think so), made guest appearances on morning radio programs that weren't hosted by Alan Jones, and had even visited a strip club in 2003. What's not for the young'uns to love? Best of all, though, he embraced technology to win voters. He created a MySpace page, a Facebook profile and endorsed a satirical campaign videos made by a Sydney law student portraying him as a Mao Zedong-style revolutionary.
Kevin07 was a wildly successful campaign - and technology contributed a great deal to the Ruddslide.
Which is why I can't help but think that Barack Obama will surely achieve the same sort of success in November's US presidential election.
This morning, Obama announced that he would use SMS and email to tell the world who his running mate will be. The reason? He's received millions in funding over the Internet, and wants to give something back to his supporters. More strategically, it's a great ploy to make voters feel more connected to the campaign and to Obama.
It's a stark contrast to John McCain, who recently admitted that he "never felt the particular need to email". It's reminiscent of George W. Bush mispronouncing "Internet" as "Internets", right? And let's face it, if there's one person McCain should distance himself from, it's Bush.
Obamarama is rampant on the Internet. Will.i.am's celebrity-studded "Yes, we can" video has generated more than 16 million viewings to date - and we still have three months til the election. Amber Lee Ettinger, an American model and actress, has made a name for herself as "Obama Girl," after releasing a video clip of her song, "I Got a Crush...on Obama," on Youtube. Obama's face has been plastered on LOLcats strips and superimposed on the bodies of comic book heroes.
John McCain's recent TV advertisement lampooning Barack Obama as a celebrity (and not a serious politician) showed how out of touch the Republican really is. No one watches TV anymore, McCain. Put it on Youtube and we'll talk.
|