Campaign (Joy) Schtick

While we’re waiting for the ’06 online campaign hilarity to heat up here in the states, a viral vid from Dutch labour party (PvdA) candidate Wouter Bos will suffice in the interim. By way of Game Politics (pretty intriguing stuff there, by the way), the Bos campaign created a “Super Mario Bros.” deemed “Super Mario Bos” that’s gotten some attention, most notably from Nintendo (allegedly). According to The Attic, “[Nintendo is] looking at ways to prosecute the political party because they do not want to be associated with any political party.”

Like it or not, any company that’s created anything recognizable can plan on being associated with all sort of things they don’t like as CGM proliferates. Still, you’d think PvdA might have known better….Wait a minute…they probably did realize this would get Nintendo’s attention and help build more buzz around the game parody ad.

On the broader topic of creating viral animated videos for political campaigns, I’m always amazed when people in the online political world rave about the Jib Jab viral video phenomenon. It seems as though they forget that their ultimate goal is to get people to vote (not pass around some vapid video while they’re bored at work). The most an animated video will do for a candidate or advocacy campaign, in my opinion anyway, is to spur a little buzz and maybe garner some ink. But, I guess that’s why we’ll probably see loads of the darn things this year.

On a side note: Wouter Bos‘s Web site features a homepage image that I find fascinating. You’d never see a side-view of a candidate, alone, looking pensive in the U.S. And wearing an open collar, no tie, never! There’s something very J. Crew catalog-esque about it. I wonder how an approach like this (i.e. candidate looking human, sans requisite family, dog, and necktie) would play here….