Killer Campaigning » Political Campaign Videos

Racist Political Campaign Ads: Candidates Showing Racism in Elections?

killercampaigning — Tue, 11 May 2010 17:14:25 +0000

Blogtown PDX has an interesting post today about a political campaign ad by Florida congressional candidate Dan Fanelli that many people are calling blatantly racist. Whether you agree with their assessment or not, you should hop over and take a look at the video.

What do you think: is the Fanelli political campaign commercial racist, or not? Have you ever seen election advertisements from candidates in local, state or federal races that you thought crossed the line into racism or bigotry, or do you think that the accusations are usually overplayed?

We don’t know about the dynamics of Fanelli’s congressional race, and have no idea whether this ad will help him or hurt him in his district. One thing is for sure: it’s certainly going to get him some extra attention, which is a good lesson for any candidate who plans on trying something controversial or risque in their political campaign ads.

Political Campaign Election Candidates with Funny Names

killercampaigning — Tue, 11 May 2010 01:46:11 +0000

Killer Campaigning has focused before on political campaign candidates running for office with long, funny, or downright strange and weird names. Whether you have an unusual first or last name, you might be worried about how it will affect your electability if you’re campaigning for votes in a local election.

There are plenty of politicians who have been elected with funny names, and nothing so trivial should keep you from running for office if you’re truly dedicated to serving your community. In fact, as we’ve mentioned here before, a unique name–even if it brings smiles to the voters’ faces–can make you more memorable if you run a great political campaign.

If you’re a political candidate with a long, funny or unusual name, then there’s someone who you should meet: Young Boozer, a candidate for State Treasurer in Alabama. In addition to an impressive resume, Boozer has an amusing name . . . and he doesn’t shy away from it.

His campaign motto of “Funny Name, Serious Leadership” is very memorable, and he even starts out his political campaign commercial by saying “yes, that’s my real name.”

I don’t know how Young Boozer will fare in his election efforts, but you have to admire the guy for jumping into the political arena with such a humorous name. If Boozer can make a respectable run for higher office with a name like his, than nothing is stopping you from doing the same.

Hat tip to A Tale Told by an Idiot for bringing our attention to Boozer’s ad.

YouTube Political Campaign Videos for Local Elections

killercampaigning — Sat, 23 Jan 2010 20:12:18 +0000

Until recently, filming and distributing effective political campaign videos was an expensive venture that was limited to candidates who raked in tons of cash in big elections. Thanks to YouTube and other free video-sharing websites, though, even local candidates can create inexpensive videos to share with supporters or embed on their websites.

Armed with nothing more than a cheap digital video camera (there are plenty to choose from under a hundred bucks), local political candidates can easily record short videos and upload them instantly to YouTube. Additionally, YouTube also provides a snippet of code that lets you easily embed your uploaded campaign video on your candidate website, too.

You can check out my personal YouTube channel and see a few videos that I uploaded for my city council campaign. It only took me a few minutes to create the free account, and I also used the YouTube embed code to feature one of the videos on my campaign website.

If you’re a candidate running for office in a city council, school board, mayor or other local race, I highly recommend filming your own short campaign video and uploading it to YouTube. Even if you don’t have your own candidate website, you can use the video to promote your campaign by sending a link to supporters and local news media.

As for what your campaign video should be about, it’s up to you. Simply introducing yourself and highlighting some of the elements of your campaign is fine. Don’t think that you have to make your YouTube video ten minutes long; most viewers won’t stick around long enough to watch if it’s longer than a couple minutes, anyway.

After you’ve created your YouTube account, filmed your political candidate video and uploaded it, you need to promote it in order for it to be an effective campaign tool. Announce your new YouTube channel in a press release to local media and newspapers, email your supporters a link to watch the video and embed it in your website if you happen to have one.

YouTube lets you see exactly how many times your video has been viewed, so you have metrics to measure its effectiveness over the course of your campaign. Don’t think that hundreds of people need to view the video in order for it to be effective! Even if only a few dozen voters tune in, that’s still a good amount of local campaign attention for something that costs nothing to produce.

If you are running in a local election and haven’t created your own YouTube channel yet to upload political campaign videos, you’re really missing out on some valuable free Internet exposure. What are you waiting for?