Short spoof of the party sweeps the internet
By Heidi Dawley Jul 1, 2008
Years ago, the big problem in American politics was that candidates, their parties and the political bosses tightly controlled the electoral process, down to tightly scripted dialogues with voters. The public knew what the candidates wanted them to know, and little beyond.
How things have changed.
Increasingly the internet determines the dialogue, leaving the candidates to respond. Often its vicious, wilful slander, and candidates have little choice but to react, as has Barack Obama has to a slur campaign alleging he's a Muslim by setting up FightTheSmears.com.
“Whispering campaigns have always been around, but it is far easier now,” says Heather Dougherty, director of research at Hitwise, the internet tracking company.
But often it's some clever spoof that seems to come from nowhere to race around the internet for days and weeks. The latest of these is a three-and-a-half minute spoof video called “I’m Voting Republican.”
Posted three weeks ago, the video has now amassed some 2.8 million views on YouTube. “That’s definitely a significant amount,” says Dougherty.
The marketshare of visits to imvotingrepublican.com has passed that of John McCain’s official site. For the week ended June 21, that share was 1.3 times larger by Hitwise's calculations.
The video is a satirical look at the Republican Party, filmed as a series of man-on-the-street interviews.
“I’m voting Republican,” says one man in the video, “because all other countries are inferior to us.”
"The idea was to create a viral video using humor in order to encourage people between 18 - 24 to, first, register to vote and, second, vote Democrat,” says Charlie Steak, who wrote and directed the clip, which was produced by SyntheticHuman Pictures, a film production company.
He believes that it wouldn’t have been possible to get his message out as quickly and easily before the days of the internet. “The internet definitely levels the playing field,” Steak says.
In the primaries there were a number of such videos, including the one featuring Hilary Clinton in a sendup of the famous Orwellian 1984 ad for Apple and the music video-style “I’ve Got a Crush on Obama.”
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Meanwhile, in online ratings for the week ended June 22, according to Nielsen Online, Google was the top parent company, followed by Microsoft, Yahoo, Time Warner and News Corp. Online. For the fourth straight week, the top five brands were Google, Yahoo, MSN/Windows Live, AOL Media Network and Microsoft.
Experian Group Limited held the top advertiser spot for the third straight week with 3.5 million impressions, with Vonage No. 2 at 3.0 million. Yahoo was once again the top advertising site with 18.0 million ads served, with MySpace a distant No. 2 at 4.9 million.
Sessions per person per week were even to the previous week at 16, as were domains visited per person at 40. PC time per person was basically flat compared with the previous week at 17 hours and 45 minutes.
Top 25 parent companies Through June 22
#
Parent
Unique Audience (000)
Reach %
Time Spent per Person (hh:mm:ss)
1
Google
91,321
64.8
0:37:25
2
Microsoft
86,884
61.7
0:43:31
3
Yahoo!
79,760
56.6
1:02:59
4
Time Warner
63,522
45.1
1:16:31
5
News Corp. Online
45,538
32.3
0:49:16
6
eBay
33,858
24.0
0:46:51
7
InterActiveCorp
28,670
20.4
0:12:10
8
Amazon
25,533
18.1
0:13:22
9
Apple Computer
25,055
17.8
0:32:19
10
Walt Disney Internet Group
24,422
17.3
0:25:41
11
Wikimedia Foundation
23,968
17.0
0:11:00
12
Landmark Communications
23,380
16.6
0:13:34
13
Turner Network (Time Warner)
21,203
15.1
0:19:54
14
New York Times Company
20,041
14.2
0:09:27
15
AT&T Inc.
16,652
11.8
0:23:28
16
RealNetworks, Inc.
15,490
11.0
0:15:36
17
Facebook
15,030
10.7
0:41:09
18
Comcast Corp.
14,334
10.2
0:30:36
19
Verizon Communications
13,558
9.6
0:19:24
20
CNET Networks
13,288
9.4
0:07:18
21
Viacom Digital
13,141
9.3
0:24:14
22
E.W. Scripps Company
13,118
9.3
0:06:21
23
Bank of
America
12,925
9.2
0:23:02
24
CraigsList
12,732
9.0
0:40:36
25
United Online
12,427
8.8
0:25:52
Source: Nielsen Online
Top 25 brands Through June 22
Parent
Unique Audience (000)
Reach %
Time spent per person (hh:mm:ss)
1
Google
82,024
58.2
0:27:16
2
Yahoo!
79,006
56.1
1:03:02
3
MSN/Windows Live
65,280
46.4
0:45:44
4
AOL Media Network
56,000
39.8
1:23:53
5
Microsoft
50,646
36.0
0:15:26
6
Fox Interactive Media
39,504
28.1
0:53:08
7
YouTube
35,594
25.3
0:27:02
8
eBay
27,250
19.4
0:50:26
9
Apple
25,055
17.8
0:32:19
10
Wikipedia
23,821
16.9
0:11:03
11
Weather Channel
20,499
14.6
0:14:19
12
Amazon
20,293
14.4
0:11:52
13
Blogger
17,290
12.3
0:07:28
14
Real Network
15,487
11.0
0:15:36
15
Facebook
15,030
10.7
0:41:09
16
CNN Digital Network
14,877
10.6
0:18:11
17
Ask Search Network
14,742
10.5
0:12:51
18
AT&T
12,953
9.2
0:26:39
19
About.com
12,848
9.1
0:03:09
20
Bank of
America
12,848
9.1
0:22:35
21
Craigslist
12,723
9.0
0:40:35
22
Glam Media
10,845
7.7
0:09:10
23
Comcast
10,791
7.7
0:38:50
24
ESPN
10,251
7.3
0:20:54
25
Disney Online
9,813
7.0
0:32:56
Source: Nielsen Online
Top 25 advertisers (excludes house ads)
Through June 22
#
Company
Impressions (000)
1
Experian Group Limited
3,528,055
2
Vonage Holdings Corp
3,019,127
3
NexTag, Inc.
2,686,174
4
Edmunds.com, Inc.
1,797,036
5
Scottrade, Inc.
1,257,218
6
Electronic Arts, Inc.
1,173,816
7
AT&T Corp.
963,042
8
Deutsche Telekom AG
888,154
9
Netflix, Inc.
851,268
10
Verizon Communications, Inc.
783,623
11
Microsoft Corporation
731,054
12
United Online, Inc.
683,227
13
Vstarr.com
642,830
14
ALLTEL Corporation
604,175
15
HSBC Holdings plc
520,086
16
InterActiveCorp
517,464
17
Ford Motor Company
473,277
18
E*TRADE FINANCIAL Corp.
420,869
19
General Motors Corporation
400,718
20
Unclassified Local Advertiser
390,874
21
General Electric Company
372,485
22
Capital One Financial Corporation
339,388
23
Monster Worldwide, Inc.
313,996
24
United StatesFederal Government
284,428
25
Fidelity Investments
275,792
Source: Nielsen Online, AdRelevance
Note: Nielsen Online, AdRelevance service estimated online advertising expenditures account for CPM-based image-based advertising. All reported estimated expenditures and impressions do not account for the following placement types: text only, paid fee services, performance-based campaigns, sponsorships, barters, in-stream ("pre-rolls") players, messenger applications, partnership advertising, promotions and email campaigns. AdRelevance currently does not report estimated spending for paid search advertising. Also, Nielsen Online, AdRelevance reporting data reflects advertising activity served on pages accessible via the World Wide Web and not within AOL's proprietary service.
Top 25 advertising sites (excludes house ads)
Through June 22
Company
Impressions (000)
1
Yahoo!
17,975,687
2
MySpace
4,900,156
3
MSN
3,163,816
4
Comcast.net
1,209,222
5
AOL.com
1,146,096
6
MSNBC
861,825
7
eBay
763,521
8
Facebook
618,599
9
FOXNEWS.COM
601,850
10
IMDb
590,936
11
The Weather Channel
472,725
12
New York Times
395,873
13
NeoPets
387,977
14
YouTube
361,858
15
Photobucket
278,273
16
ESPN.com
248,537
17
CNN Money
242,537
18
Juno
233,404
19
Verizon Online
232,837
20
Amazon
228,309
21
CNN
218,597
22
Excite
191,118
23
AT&T Worldnet
189,982
24
NetZero
180,608
25
Project Playlist
177,726
Source: Nielsen Online, AdRelevance
Note: Nielsen Online, AdRelevance service estimated online advertising expenditures account for CPM-based image-based advertising. All reported estimated expenditures and impressions do not account for the following placement types: text only, paid fee services, performance-based campaigns, sponsorships, barters, in-stream ("pre-rolls") players, messenger applications, partnership advertising, promotions and email campaigns. AdRelevance currently does not report estimated spending for paid search advertising. Above data does not include any house advertising activity. Also, Nielsen Online, AdRelevance reporting data reflects advertising activity served on pages accessible via the World Wide Web and not within AOL's proprietary service.
