Pixman’s UGC Welcome To Barack Obama
Manolo Almagro, Q Division Managing Partner
Adrian was kind enough to let me – “an American” write the follow up post on Pixman’s latest gimmick – i.e.’Together Let’s Welcome Obama‘
Objectively – I took a close look at the technical elements of the this promotion. Pixman setup a web-site that asks you to make your own videos and upload them to a website, then – these posted videos become searchable and are geo-tagged so that they show up in position (automatically) on of the map of the world. Nothing new here – its similar to what Flickr did in 2008 and YouTube/Google Earth in 2007.
But here’s the ‘twist’ PIXMAN will magically deliver the best videos (as judged by PIXMAN) to the President Elect – (or if its after 20 Jan -it’s then, Mr. President) Perhaps they plan on showing these greetings on their nomadic media platform? Good luck getting close to him, they’re planning on locking down the Capital that day, heck-they won’t even let people have umbrellas due to the security risks.
As much as I wanted to like this campaign, I struggled with a few things:
- I didn’t like the fact that a Canadian company was blatantly exploiting a US President/symbol of Hope & Change for such an obvious self-serving promotion.
- The idea itself was not very creative or compelling, if PIXMAN was really interested in social change, why not ask the world to post videos of people asking Obama to make a statement about the people suffering in Gaza or Darfur?
- I expected more innovation from PIXMAN, in the past this company has done some creative events. With a little more work they could have integrated TWITTER (like this) or built a cool iPhone application that was linked with the website.
On the lighter side, there are some really funny videos on the site, and – admittedly its worth a look – and I’m very curious to see just how viral this site will get in the weeks ramping up to Inauguration Day.
January 20th, 2009 at 14:22 @640
Manolo – What you’re missing – in somewhat typical American fashion – is that this election – and Obama’s victory – are things that the whole world feels a sense of attachment to – it isn’t something that is the sole domain of the USA.
In fact, since the US is so involved in matters beyond its borders, there really is no domestic matter that remains solely the domain of the American people. Everything that effects you effects us – the rest of the world. It’s a reality that you created (you being the United States).
So when another country (or a company based in another country) wants to get behind a historic event like this one, perhaps you should rejoice at the unifying power this has had and be grateful for the goodwill and sense of camaraderie this has generated. Lord knows, you (the USA) need it.
January 21st, 2009 at 16:26 @726
Michael – thanks for taking the time to comment on this post. Your point is well taken and I do agree with some of the points you made.
But for the record – I’m really not a typical American, -my background is asian, I hold dual citizenship in the USA and another country – and I’ve lived outside of the US for extended periods of time in Europe and in the Asia Region. But, I do know what you are are alluding ot as the “typical” american can be very ameri-centric. Being a minority I’ve witnessed it many times – personally. – So, you can understand why I think the Obama victory is important to the US and the world (I voted for him) I hope he changes everything and begins to upgrade the world opinions of the US that our previous administration had created. – and so now I step off the soap box.
But in the end, My “opinion” on how Pixman chose to combine politics and promotion has not changed, – but It shouldn’t be turned into an issue at this point- I respect that you have an opinion and in turn – I hope you can respect that have a different one. That said – I ‘m a big fan of Toronto (and Hockey) so I hope you can we can live happily ever after since we are “neighbors”