Don't attack yourself, get others to do it for you

If you go to Labour's new campaign creation Torylogo.com you are given the chance to create a slogan that sits above the Conservative's name.

If you go to the gallery page you can see the tons of creations of the visitors (or perhaps the tons of logos created by party activists for the amusement of the friends who can tell). Not all attack the Conservatives but the majority do, I saw two that either put both Labour and the Conservatives or on on this shot that seems to attack the idea itself. My favourite is the coconuts logo!

I guess the idea is to allow people to create the logo, save it as a jpeg and then for users to add their own unique attack logo to their own website, blog or social network profile so rather than being labour everywhere there is an appearance of anti-Conservatives everywhere. Not sure I like it much, it is all a little bit cheap and childish; nothing on those great 'are you thinking what I'm thinking' slogans from 2005. What's anyone else think?

People Power

This video is produced by Mitch Stewart who has taken over from David Plouffe as head, in a way, of Obama's campaign post election as President. the video pretty much says it all in terms of the strategy:

The last lines are perhaps the most interesting: "change comes to Washington and not from Washington", it is the people that Obama argues need to push for change. What this seems to aim to achieve is the firmly align the people with Obama against the system and vested interests. He remains in the strategic position of being the people's president acting on their behalf but fighting against a Congress and House of Representatives which contain those who represent corporations, themselves possibly but are against Obama led revolution - that is the implicit meaning of his campaign.

He presents his plan and asks his supporters, those who have shared their email with his campaign, to do all the same activities he asked of them to get him into the White House: campaigning among their neighbours, making phone calls and mobilising support behind the President. It could well be a powerful force to bring to bear against elected representatives if it works. I guess the question is will it, and can this be sustained?

One use for Facebook

Mention Facebook as a tool of political communication and you get very mixed reactions, and loads of issues emerge. The jury is certainly out on whether risks outweigh benefits, whether it represents reaching out or dumbing down or, perhaps most importantly, if it is about individuals communicating with individuals or individuals marketing themselves to potential voters. They are all accepted arguments for and critiques against! Here is an interesting example. With the European Parliamentary Elections on the horizon the Green Party are organising and one part of their mobilisation strategy is via Facebook. Their party group has been going for just short of two years, there is an active group that share links, event and campaigning ideas via the wall, it has 2,260 members and the admins include current MEP and party leader Caroline Lucas who is also an individual member. All good but nothing special one could argue.

But as the election nears what the party is looking for are activists, in fact messages from the group invite volunteers willing to do: "leafleting, mobilising members and potential supporters, writing letters to the local press, helping to create events for visiting Euro-candidates, watching for hustings opportunities…" The email calls it an Obama-style ground-level campaign and is aimed at the student activist seeking to add to their CV, but it also represents a way of targeting the people they need to. If they are prepared to join a 'Green Party' group and publicise their support they are likely to be at least interested in the idea of greater involvement and hence willing to be be encouraged to take part. So while it easy to condemn Facebook as mind-numbing and a thief of time it is enabling communication between the Green Party and a group of supportive individuals that may be hard to replicate if social networks did not exist. So, based on that argument, could an MP not also gain s similar support base within a constituency via Facebook that could be encouraged to be actively supportive at times of an election?

Mobilise the vote via Facebook

Now my participation will have no impact whatsoever, but as both a reminder and an endorsement this could have a huge impact on mobilising young voters in the US. The idea is simple, that the Facebook user is invited to donate their status to remind their friends to vote and, if you wish, to vote for one of the candidates in the US presidential election.

The tool is created by Project Agape run by two young men with a history of creating online communities and being involved in grassroots political organisations. I can see it working well in the US, not sure if it would be applicable more widely.