m-cause

I have been amazed at how passionate my European friends & colleagues are about the upcoming US Presidential election.  I have not seen this level of interest over here before (and I have been living in Europe across 2 Bush elections).  As the democratic drama unfolds, many of them (English, German, French, you name it) are more up to date on the superdelegate counts than I am.  I think many younger Europeans were so dissillusioned by Bush that they forgot (or never knew) how raw and grassroots American democracy can be–if given good candidates.  Indeed, Obama “mania” seems to have fully gripped many in Euroland; most of those I talk to seem to be firmly in the Obama camp.   

From the “cause side”, however, some over at Talk Left have recently been giving Obama a hard time for the fact that he gave so little to charity between 2000-2006 (in % terms, not absolute).  The Clintons, on the other hand, are big givers and cause supporters.  Bill even wrote a full book about it.   Those that want to see social change & progress (more often than not)–are almost naturally drawn to give.  So, why has Obama lagged on the giving side ?(in % terms)…he does seem to give quite a lot of his time to volunteering.  And, he does seem to have an interesting volunteer plan in his platform.  In any case, we probably don’t know the full story.  Talk Left admits that it is possible the Obamas made gifts to other worthy causes that were not deductible for federal income tax purposes.

In another interesting development, Joseph Jaffe challenged Obama’s marketing (and Clinton’s marketing for that matter) as old, dusty, and traditional (e.g. again, Obama is all talk & no walk) in a fun post over on Jaffee Juice.  Apparently, Obama spent a lot ( $9 million versus Clinton’s $5 million) above the line on TV in the Pennslyvania loss.  Jaffe then provoked Obama, saying in effect that he would offer himself up as a marketing advisor if Obama would respond to the post.  I would imagine Jaffe as a kind of modern day Rosser Reeves for Obama.  Side note:  Reeves designed the first, “innovative” TV ads for Eisenhower, helping him defeat the more TV averse Stevenson in the 1952 election. Reeves was also the mastermind between the M&M slogan “melts in your mouth, not in your hand” and creator of the term Unique Selling Point.  You can check out how he developed the first Eisenhower (long format) ads on livingroomcandidate.com. 

In a master stroke, Jaffe’s post seems to have worked as either Obama or someone from Obama’s camp responded very quickly. 

Yes, politicians & their staffs are also grappling with the same fundamental media & medium changes& shifts that “day job” marketers.  Jaffe’s post is provocative and fun, but in the end, it does seem that Obama has done a pretty good job using the new tools (Twitter, YouTube, Facebook, myspace, etc.) overall.  You can also check his blog out at my.barackobama.com.  Obama was probably not overly focused on reaching younger people in Pennslyvania anyway (those more receptive to web 2.0) with his message as many of that demographic were already behind him.