Campaign buttons for the digital age
: When I was young, everybody loved campaign buttons — and then bumperstickers — to (a) show off your support for your guy and (b) hope that this stuff would become collectibles worth a fortune someday.
But buttons have faded; at most, you see stickers now (which seem to say that your candidate will last only as long as the glue). And my collection of McCarthy buttons probably isn’t worth a thing. Too bad.
uut then I was inspired when I read this on the Trendwatching newsletter:
With ring tones becoming a billion dollar industry, what’s to stop corporations, organizations and political parties from enticing consumers to download their jingles, commercials or political cries for change, or using alternative broadcasting channels to spread their corporate tunes and jingles?
And I wondered…
: Political candidates should come up with brief, simple jingles — a half-dozen tones, not unlike the Close Encounters intergallactic theme.
: They can then offer that theme as a free ringtone for your mobile phone. Imagine if you start hearing the tone over and over; you’ll hear a groundswell for that candidate. Imagine hearing someone else sharing the same ringtone; you’ll know that you agree. Smartmobs time.
: They can put that simple tone on their own web pages and on the pages of supporters. Everytime you hear it, you’ll know that the groundswell swells.
Yes, that’s what candidates need: Jingles.
