We've hit a new low in Australian political life with the launch of KEVIN07, the campaign website for Kevin Rudd - oh, and the Labor party. It is full of the mock enthusiasm so prevalent in American politics, and the similarities are made more obvious by the use of red, white and blue, the presence of bumper stickers, and the ability to buy KEVIN07 gear ...
In a blatant acknowledgement that they must fight the Liberals on personality alone, the site launch represents the rock-bottom for Australian politics - that is, until we have the Rudd girl battling the Howard girl online (like the yanks do with Obama girl vs Hilary girl). Mind you Kev looks like he's just swallowed a prune in this photo, so he probably needs some cheering up.
The buzz around the office is that this is likely to backfire. It is all too easy to parody and rip something like this off, not to mention the average Aussie's instinctive dislike of anyone so blatantly espousing American qualities and values.
We might like working with and cooperating with yanks, but that doesn't mean we want our politicians to become them!
The buzz in the blogosphere is that Labor has made a bold play, but might just have shot themselves in the foot with this one. I think the idea, using the web effectively, is a smart one - but the out and out cheesiness of the site backfires badly.
The cheesiness is exactly what prompted me to buy a t-shirt! I'm still voting Green, mind, but I'm going to wear that t-shirt.
ReplyDeleteThe initiative's USA-transplant's as cynical as Teflon's Youtube releases. Not to mention embarrassing.
ReplyDeleteThe only good thing to come from this is Gillard having one less talking point to whip out from now on (Libs biggest importer of US tactics), which means we'll hear her voice less.
No matter how hard they try Kevin Rudd and the ALP will never look like natural users of internet 2.0
ReplyDeleteThanks for the comments all, it looks like it's a point of interest at least! I'll post updates to their own entry.
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