Obama for America, the president's re-election campaign, is asking artists from across the country to create posters about job creation and to do so for free.
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A sample poster designed by Kate Holloway, OFA Staff. Courtesy Obama for America |
The campaign is trying to crowd-source posters "illustrating why we support President Obama's plan to create jobs now, and why we'll re-elect him to continue fighting for jobs for the next four years."
To be clear, the actual ask is for artists to enter their posters into a contest. The winner will receive a framed version of their poster signed by the president. The losers don’t get squat and their designs are then considered intellectual property of Obama for America.
So while they can justify their actions by calling this a contest, the artists are basically working without being paid.
Talk about not practicing what you preach!
Rolling Stone writer Tim Dickinson has severely criticized Obama for America for this contest in a recent article.
“The Obama campaign has more than $60 million cash on hand,” wrote Dickinson. “In an economy this bad, you'd think a presidential campaign that flush would be happy to pay good money for a talented designer to create a campaign poster.”
Especially since the design industry has been pretty hard in this economy, as San Francisco creative director, Mike Monteiro, notes in the article.
I think we can agree that asking people to do free work in an effort to promote job creation is hypocritical and a poor decision on the part of campaign strategists. But it is also a sign that the campaign doesn’t have a very good read on how voters have changed since 2008.
Well, it worked in 2008
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A sample poster designed by Ryan Roche, OFA Staff. Courtesy Obama for America |
In the 2008, designers and artists did a great deal of free work for Obama for America. In fact, a large portion of the campaign was based on crowd-sourced material and unpaid volunteers spreading Obama’s message of hope.
The campaign not only won Obama the presidency, but it was largely hailed as one of the greatest campaigns of the year having integrated social media and digital capabilities in unprecedented ways. It was so ground breaking it even won a Cannes Gold Lion, the Oscar of advertising awards.
His campaign was hailed as a revolution not only in political campaigning, but in marketing generally.
“The promotion of the brand called Obama is a case study of where the American marketplace – and, potentially, the global one – is moving,” wrote Fast Company. “His openness to the way consumers today communicate with one another, his recognition of their desire for authentic "products," and his understanding of the need for a new global image – all are valuable signals for marketers everywhere.”
With such praise, it is no wonder that Obama for America wants to follow the same template.
The issue is that Obama’s target market – to use a marketing term – has changed in the last three years. They are the same people, but they will not be won with the same tactics that were used the last time around.
In 2008, Obama’s strongest supporters were mostly young people, eager for change and looking to a fresh politician to give them hope at a time when the effects of the recession were just beginning.
Fast-forward to 2011 and those young people, who were such fervent supporters, face unemployment levels averaging around 14% and they are a bit disillusioned as they haven’t seen the transformation that they thought they would.
So this time around, these people aren’t buying a promise of change, they want to see change.
They don’t want hope, they want jobs.
They won’t settle for abstract words, they want concrete action.
Yes We Can…Again
So while this group might require new tactics that is not to say that Obama for America can’t recycle what made the 2008 campaign so effective.
They should continue to use innovative communication tools to create authentic experiences for voters and facilitate consumer creation of the Obama brand.
So how might they have approached this Jobs Poster in a way that would capitalize on the success of 2008 campaign, yet be more action oriented?
With $60 million in the coffers, Obama for America could have made a big statement, for example, by hiring groups of unemployed artists and designers to create different posters.
Better yet, hire a group in Detroit, Las Vegas, Riverside, etc. and have each create posters tailored specifically to their locale. Then he is not only supporting those who have suffered unemployment, but he is supporting the unemployed in local communities across the country.
A move like that shows voters that Obama isn’t just about rhetoric and slogans, he is going to put his money where is mouth is.
