Politics and Culture My Ass

Thoughts from the Advertising 2.0 conference: Politics and Culture panel discussion

Y'know, panel discussions are hard enough (christ, you can't get a freaking' word in edgewise), without panelists having something to sell.  I'm good with an ax to grind, or a POV (educated or otherwise) to expound, but ignoring the topic in order to convince an audience that your 100-year-old media brand is suddenly relevant because you can serve it up on a mobile device is just irritating.

The saving grace was getting to sit next to Kurt Anderson, founder of Spy magazine, and kind of a personal hero to me, journalistically speaking.  He offered an interesting counterpoint to the assertion by one of the mainstream media channels that they were experiencing "explosive" growth in news consumption among a younger demographic.  Kurt pointed out that it might be the "Obama Factor" – people, and especially younger people – are consuming Obama news, not... news.

Obama is the first legitimate digital political brand.  (My apologies to Ron Paul.)  He's simultaneously being created online by his own brilliant strategists, and thousands of anonymous and famous denizens of the web.  Will.i.am's "Yes We Can" video is the most powerful piece of propaganda since Leni Riefenstahl.  And don't read anything into that.  Barack Obama is a magnificent orator on his own.  Combine him with music, celebrity and message, and that's some powerful shit.

But the question plagues me: can a digital political brand be built without substance behind it?  I bet it could....