Schlepping to the White House

One of the new rules of communication is we are in a business about communities. How can you get people to come together in groups discuss your brand, to contribute to it and, actually, to become a part of it? What makes it hard for brand owners is to do this successfully you have to stop being control freaks.

Here’s an example. The accountants Deloittes wanted to recruit the brightest young grads to join their firm after university. So, they gave camcorders to some of their own staff and got them to make films about their jobs. What resulted were some charming, funny, interesting little movies which were charming, funny and interesting precisely because the powers-that-be did not lay down guidelines, make rules or tell their people what to do or say.

This isn’t only getting students talking to each other about what a very different sort of firm Deloittes must be, it’s getting people at Deloittes talking to themselves about what a different sort of firm it must be. And there’s a chance that soon it really will be.
Another current example of an online community being created to effect change is at www.thegreatschlep.com.

Because the last US election hinged on Florida, where Al Gore lost (or was robbed, depending on your point of view) of the White House by just 586 votes, Democrats are taking the state very seriously indeed. The idea, in both the viral and the website, is to get young Jews to fly to Florida to persuade their grandparents to vote for Obama.

The campaign uses comedienne Sarah Silverman whose views in the vid are definitely not politically correct. Watch the young black guy sitting beside her. Best line?

“Yes, Barack Hussein Obama is a shitty name but you would expect someone named Manischewitz. Guberman might understand that..”

What’s making this both effective and famous communication is it isn’t filtered.
So it is acquiring a life of its own, helping to create a community large enough to make sure that the one man who might possibly help recalibrate the world gets elected.

/Patrick Collister/