The battle to become arguably the most powerful man on earth has entered the digital age this time around as both candidates for the US presidency look to utilise digital channels to gain votes in the election race. The BBC reports how both Barack Obama and John McCain have used the web as a medium for the election campaigns. Both candidates have used the power of YouTube to broadcast debates and speeches from their campaign creating their own channels with Obama going as far as integrating Google checkout for charitable donations! Barackobamadotcom johnmccaindotcom
Barack Obama has even gone as far as using in game advertising to try and reach the youth audience taking out ads in 18 video games including Guitar Hero, Burnout Paradise and Madden 09! The ads were to promote his website, vote for change, and are an openly stated as an attempt to “reach young males 18-34”. How successful these campaigns are remains to be seen, I suspect YouTube is a far more useful medium than Guitar Hero! I can’t say that I’m concentrating on anything more than rocking out the next big riff and thrilling the crowd with some smoking solos! But maybe that’s just me!