At 3:44am EST this morning, Obama sent out this text to his followers: “Barack has chosen Senator Joe Biden to be our VP nominee. Watch the first Obama-Biden rally live at 3pm ET on www.BarackObama.com. Spread the word”.
It was a nod to the mobile lifestyle of his often young, tech-savvy supporters, but also shows how mainstream the technology has become, and–more importantly–that Obama “gets it.” (The Democratic nominee is not only embracing digital media, it’s embracing him. He just moved into the #1 spot on Twitter, beating out former tweet king Kevin Rose.) His sign-off to “spread the word” has actually been key to his success. Young people trust their friends and peers, and the campaign’s grassroots level mobilization (no pun intended)–both online and on campus–has taken advantage of this very concept.
However, some people got the memo a bit early:
So last night I got a text message from the number “62262″ that said “DUDE, IT’S OBAMA HERE, I CHOO CHOO CHOOSE YOU TO BE MY VP, DAWG.”
Thinking that couldn’t POSSIBLY be anything other than one of my friends f***ing with me, I wrote back asking who it was. I got back this message: “Thanks for your submission to Obama mobile. Reply with your zipcode to get local Obama info. Text HELP for help, STOP to quit. Std charges may apply.”
Taking “Std charges” to mean “sexually transmitted disease charges”, I thought that whoever this was, they were obviously hilarious. But sort of weirded out after seeing it again a few minutes ago, I googled “62262″, and sure enough it’s actually the Obama campaign.
First of all, at what PR team meeting did they sit around and decide that they were going to text me that, and how awesome, on a scale of 1 to 10, was that meeting. Secondly, why would they EVER DO THIS. Dude is running for PRESIDENT. It’s funny, but it’s also incredibly unprofessional. And it’s sort of bad, because it’s ammunition for the idea that Obama’s campaign is just trying to “popularize” itself, appealing to youth and youth culture and trying to draw people onto the fun, young bandwagon, rather than characterizing itself with the integrity a campaign of new, progressive principles and values deserves.
I mean, aren’t there better ways to motivate me as a 26-year-old voter than an Old School-esque text message with weird pop-racial undertones? Like maybe a tactic that gives me a little more fucking credit? Are they just trying to provoke a response so my interaction is registered in their records?
So weird. Next I’ll be getting a text from John McCain asking me what I’m wearing and propositioning me to meet with him IRL.
As it turns out, it was quite simple to fake texts from Obama on Verizon’s service. In “Freak Out Your Friends With Fake Obama Texts,” Wonkette blogged step-by-step instructions.
But as grandma-gullible as this 27 year old was, he did bring up a good point. Is the Obama campaign just “trying to ‘popularize’ itself, appealing to youth and youth culture and trying to draw people onto the fun, young bandwagon”? After all, the candidate did opt to attend a fundraiser with Usher over an AARP debate. Is he selling out? Or is that just his shirts?
Well, it’s politics after all, there is obviously going to be some pandering. But on the whole, Obama’s been authentic in everything he’s done, and that is what resonates with this younger audience. The mantra goes: You can do it, as long as you “keep it real,” which as Hammer said, means staying true to your own reality. It was the contents of the text–spoken like a true teenager–that ticked off this Tumblrist, not the text itself.
Truth is, young people DO want to be spoken to on their turf (most teens have taught their parents to text so they can stay in better touch), but in an authentic way. So stay away from the txt spk and slang, boomers, unless you’re making a blockbuster comedy with Halle Berry that is:
