Jamie Low

Ouch.  This hurts. The 2009 Elections haven’t even happened yet, and I’m getting slammed in the media for my involvement.

Ok, I’m impressed. MoveOn.org sent out a customized mass e-mail this morning that made me look like the biggest loser.  (Ok, I wasn’t singled out; this was a customized mass email that just stuffed my name into the message.  But this wasn’t just a “Hi Jamie” customization that you might normally expect from a mass email; they somehow managed to edit a newscast that included my printed name on a series of screen banners, a church billboard and even written in “pen” on a cardboard box.  Very impressive work, I gotta say.

Of course, when I say me, I mean we: they must have sent these out to everyone on their email lists.  And taking it one step further, you can stuff anybody’s name you want into this thing to make sure you’re not the only butt of the joke.

In concept, this is viral content at it’s best.  I’ll be surprised if this doesn’t bring down a server somewhere.  I’m a huge fan of personalized content to make a message go viral on the web, but it’s hard to do well.  JibJab made this technique popular with the bobble head “You” videos, and there’s definitely a smell of Onion in the air when you watch it.  But MoveOn doesn’t just try to entertain, it’s attempting to use this medium to spread the word.  While it may not change any minds, or actually achieve it’s stated goal of making more people go out and vote, it will certainly get folks talking about themselves, which is a very popular topic, and an effective way to spread the word quickly.

Well done Peter Koechley and friends, well done.

Update: FAIL.  With no viral “send to a friend” component feature at the end of the video, this thing leaves the viewer with nowhere to go next. Unless I post a link on my own, MoveOn’s viral component comes to a schreeching halt.

Customize your own: http://www.cnnbcvideo.com