Electoral Picspam
A few weeks ago, I was having a beer-fuelled debate with my brother Jamie. He was insistent that political parties need to make proper use of social networking, viral marketing and all that jazz. I agreed in principle, but had to point out that getting that sort of thing to take off is really, really hard and no one really knows how to do it.
So I was both surprised and delighted when the Liberal Democrats' online campaign took off, not with any official party initiative (though Vote Labservative was a pretty good effort), but with the Facebook group We got Rage Against the Machine to #1, we can get the Lib Dems into office! - a completely spontaneous, unofficial upwelling of passion, which now dwarfs the official online efforts of any political party.
The best bit of the group was always the picture section: an outpouring of creativity, often funny, sometimes crude, always impassioned, of the sort that will be familiar to anyone who has been involved in SF fandom. As the election campaign comes to a close, but before the results are in, I thought I'd record a few of my favourites for the record. Some are clever, some are skilful, some are well-aimed blows, some are simply offbeat - but all are splendid in their own way.
First, the sci-fi / cult movie photoshop jobs:
Then, the Nick Clegg youth vote:
An improved version of the Sun's polling day headline:
And the sweetest endorsement any political leader has ever had:
So I was both surprised and delighted when the Liberal Democrats' online campaign took off, not with any official party initiative (though Vote Labservative was a pretty good effort), but with the Facebook group We got Rage Against the Machine to #1, we can get the Lib Dems into office! - a completely spontaneous, unofficial upwelling of passion, which now dwarfs the official online efforts of any political party.
The best bit of the group was always the picture section: an outpouring of creativity, often funny, sometimes crude, always impassioned, of the sort that will be familiar to anyone who has been involved in SF fandom. As the election campaign comes to a close, but before the results are in, I thought I'd record a few of my favourites for the record. Some are clever, some are skilful, some are well-aimed blows, some are simply offbeat - but all are splendid in their own way.
First, the sci-fi / cult movie photoshop jobs:
Then, the Nick Clegg youth vote:
An improved version of the Sun's polling day headline:
And the sweetest endorsement any political leader has ever had: