Politics This Year’s Best and Worst Campaign Mailers
posted by on October 31 at 14:59 PM
As my coworkers are (all too) aware, I have a bit of an obsession with campaign mailers. What most people throw out without even reading, I keep and compile in marked file folders.
It’s a compulsion:
Anyway, every year, I pick the year’s best and worst mailers, and now I’m sharing them with you on Slog.
First, the worst (an unprecedented tie!)
This first one comes form the Washington State Democratic Central Committee. Here’s the front.
First of all, I can’t look at that arrow without thinking of this:
And Dan Savage notes that the arrow points at the crotch of whoever’s reading it.
The inside isn’t much better:
Call me a pervert, but there’s something weird about the phrase “top down and bottom up.”
But it gets even better:
Christine Gregoire: Taking Washington State straight to the bottom!
Our second last-place finisher comes, I’m sad to say, from the Mass Transit Now campaign.
Light rail: Don’t worry, we’ll only let white people ride it!
Granted, there is one minority represented inside the mailer. (She’s right there in the middle!)
But as long as I’m showing you that part, I should probably point out that if you fill out your ballot (WITH YOUR PEN YOU CAN!)the way they represent it here, it’ll be disqualified. Checks don’t cut it.
But lest you think I’m just slagging on the Mass Transit Now campaign, this year’s best campaign mailer comes from none other than… the Mass Transit Now campaign!
Ah, that’s better. Simple, eye-catching, and sarcastic. Even better, the inside includes a large version of the system map—along with three succinct reasons to vote for
Proposition 1.
And just for kicks, a blast from the past:
Have any good/bad/ugly campaign mailers hit your mailbox this year? Tell me about them in the comments.
Wow.
pervert
I've gotten 2 absentee ballot request forms from the Wisconsin GOP even though I haven't lived there for well over a year. The strange thing is, they weren't sent to my old WI address and forwarded, and they weren't even sent to my first Seattle address, they were sent to my new appartment in Seattle (I moved in July).
Aside from being bad (blaming the Democrats for the "excesses on Wall St") I wonder if the WI GOP is trying to encourage me to illegally register for an absentee ballot there so that they can turn around and blame me for committing voter fraud.
Am I being paranoid?
Wow, I went to school with the token minority girl
Definitely the key to passing Prop 1 is to swing the critical ironic urbanite vote. Sarcasm! Yeah, that'll grab em'.
Hey, there are mutliple people of color in that mailer - didn't anyone see the Asian guy featured on the back? Or the Latino with in the group on the front?
Best AND the worst, not bad for a transit campaign!
Erica, you're a bit of a nerd. In a nice sort of way.
I don't think I saw any particularly noteworthy mailers this year, but our Incumbent Tool here in SC District 1, Henry E. Brown, did put Oh Henry! candy bars in with some of his boring mailers. My mother happily ate hers whilst marking her ballot for Linda Ketner.
I received desperate, pleading missives from the Ted Stevens and Don Young campaigns in Alaska (the former having been convicted of corruption, the latter under investigation for it).
Both arrived a couple days after I had mailed my absentee ballot, containing votes for their Democratic opponents. Sorry, guys, you were a bit slow on the ball (not that it would have helped).
oh come on erica! your real beef with the 'pen' mailer is that it is an earnest message of empowerment as opposed to snarky sarcasm. i prefer the latter too...but this is SEATTLE for crissakes and people here are EARNEST...and a little on the white side.
your too-quick critique of the lack of diversity (corrected by agh@6) is also, i may add, likely part of your longstanding knee jerk reaction to seeing the grinning face of rob johnson--who may in fact be the whitest guy in the entire RTA district through no fault of his own bellevue bred genes...
Erica,
TV ads. My admittedly biased nomination for best
http://parksandgreenspaceslevy.ning.com/video/2225951:Video:4611
I tried to give links to more, but they get caught by the comments thread spam filter.
That Yes on Proposition 1 doorhanger thing was easily the worst designed campaign piece I've ever seen.
The Realtors PAC has been sending me a lot of horrible shit I don't care about, but it's on high-quality paper.
Also, my partner is freaked out by the photos of Dino Rossi's kids. He thinks one of them practically has a hairlip.
Too mean?
Party pieces (mail or otherwise) usually end up being the worst because they're so constrained in what they can say if it's paid for from certain accounts. Can't directly advocate for one candidate, can't advocate against another, etc.
So it's a generic mess to start with... and on top of it, pieces paid for with those certain types of funds are usually approved and turned around at the last minute so everything is rushed, especially the design.
People probably thought the arrow was clever and eye-catching when they were designing it half-drunk late at night and gave it no thought.
There you have it - the terrible Secret Origin of poorly designed party campaign material!
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