no-fi "magazine" presents
Lazy or Convenient?
The New Wave of Political Advertising
written by Jr. Senator Elana Bean, 2007
Logging into Myspace not too long back I noticed an increasing populous of potential Presidential candidate's pictures in the "Cool New People" section. Dismissing them as 
the not-really-funny joke of some Political Science majors at some B-rate college somewhere in the Midwest, I considered them to be distantly related to the other pretend celebrity profiles up here. That is, until I read an article stating that actual Presidential wannabes were utilizing Myspace as another advertising vehicle.
I thought this situation to be outright bizarre until I let it mull over for a couple weeks. Then two things almost simultaneously occurred to me. The first thing was that Rock the Vote, with all its MTV advertising, never really worked. Even when Puff Daddy (or whatever, now is not the time to go google whatever moniker he's using now) was waving his fist in our face threatening to shoot us if we didn't vote; kids still weren't voting. If candidates are trying to relate to kids of voting age, then infiltrating the part of the internet where they're spending most of their time (I'm assuming porn would knock Myspace out of the number one 
spot) would make sense. Any idiot 
with aspirations for political grandeur could get on the site, with no budget money, and have a spot to advertise. Suddenly it seemed almost too obvious a choice, and why people were not doing it sooner started to feel like the more bizarre aspect.
The second, somewhat crushing, thought was that this form of advertising is becoming more and more the norm. When big budget movies direct you to check out thenextbigsummerblockbustermovie, or when a potential employer asks for a link to your page to view your work, it suddenly becomes very clear just how ingrained this site has become in our culture. Even I have made contacts directly due to the site (*cough*).
At least it is the norm for now. Trying to guess what the next cultural attachment will be is somewhat akin to thinking in 1955 that by 1990 flying cars would be everywhere. But for now, Politicians can be just as annoyed with the fifty or so friend requests a day they will get by anonymous slutty 45 year old men posing as 16 year old girls.
(Elana Bean is a staffwriter for No-Fi "Magazine"
and plans to vote for whoever cooks the spiciest curry!)
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