Obama Girl Joins Next New Networks
Big news in LaunchSquad land this morning: we announced that our client BarelyPolitical.com was acquired by Next New Networks and Obama Girl now has a new online channel. The story is getting a good amount of press today, here, here and here, among others.
It’s interesting news, and not just because we like to see one of our clients make good, but also for what this says about the speed of image building today. Obama Girl was born less than six months ago, somewhat on a whim, with the idea that there was a huge appetite for a new combo of online video, catchy tunes, scantily clad girls and national political figures. Today, Obama Girl has become something of a national phenomenon and the phrase alone will likely stay in our political lingo for a long time.
The other piece that’s interesting here is the mix of fiction and reality in a way that can really only happen online. Obama Girl is played by model Amber Lee Ettinger, and she plays the part well, both online and offline. It’s a tough part to play, as she needs to stay in character beyond just her roles in the videos. And while some people think that the Obama Girl videos are simply viral eye candy, I think there’s a lot more there behind the success. It comes down to character and story, and the series of videos that the BarelyPolitical team has produced so far, and will do in a bigger way as part of Next New Networks, is pushing the Obama Girl character forward in interesting ways. This, to me, is the real attraction. Much like the success of LonelyGirl15 or even serial TV shows like Heroes, I think people want to follow the lives of characters.
The intriguing piece though is that the line between what’s fiction and what’s real is blurring. Unlike LonelyGirl15, BarelyPolitical never really “pretended” that Obama Girl was anything but an actress, but still, the real Obama quickly began getting questions about what he thought of her, as if she was the real deal. And Obama eventually even acknowledged her (a PR person’s dream come true) helping to move the Obama Girl story forward.
At Next New Networks, Obama Girl and BarelyPolitical can continue to create these new characters and new stories, and I’m looking forward to what they have in store. Congrats to Ben, Amber and the whole BarelyPolitical team.
Trackback
Trackback url for this entry.
LaunchSquad : Blogs : What’s New
Posted on October 17th, 2007 at 3:29 pm.
[...] PR Week Examines BarelyPolitical Campaign There’s a nice case study in this week’s issue of PR Week from Danielle Lipp that discusses our work over the past several months with BarelyPolitical.com, highlighted by the launch and campaign around the Obama Girl character. LaunchSquad’s Melissa Klein has done an outstanding job leading this effort and working with company founder Ben Relles to build the BarelyPolitical brand [Note: check out Brett’s post today on Exclamation about Next New Network’s acquisition of BarelyPolitical]. [...]