USA: Sexy amateur videos that spoof fans of presidential candidates Barack Obama and Rudy Giuliani become a hit on YouTube

Record ID: 345383

  • Title: USA: Sexy amateur videos that spoof fans of presidential candidates Barack Obama and Rudy Giuliani become a hit on YouTube
  • Date: 26th July 2007
  • Summary: (SOUNDBITE) (English) BEN RELLES, CO-PRODUCER, SAYING: "I think sites like you YouTube really changed the way an individual can have an impact on issues like elections and other issues as well, partially because these productions don't have to be big budget. It's much more about 'do you have a really good idea?' and then if that idea is good it can really take off and be seen by hundreds of thousands of people, literally days later. So, that's the most interesting effect in my mind is that the last election there wasn't this tool where if somebody wanted to create a video, they could immediately have it in front of millions of people and we do now."
  • Embargoed: 10th August 2007 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Usa
  • Country: USA
  • Topics: Entertainment
  • Reuters ID: LVA3FOVMC75GAMPL9S4H2E4MYDDM
  • Story Text: Two amateur music videos that spoof presidential hopefuls Rudy Giuliani and Barack Obama have become a hit among the college crowd ever since being posted on YouTube.com, proving that mixing humor and sex with politics is one of the most effective ways of getting younger people to take an interest in the campaign.
    The producers, advertising executive Ben Relles and singer Leah Kauffman, hired models to appear in the videos and lip-synch to Kauffman's lyrics.
    "We decided to do a video initially about politics because we knew everybody follows it," said Relles. "After we put out the video, it actually became a part of the political discourse and major media outlets were talking about it."
    The "I've Got a Crush on Obama" video that was posted on YouTube.com on June 15 quickly became a hit and was viewed by more than 500,000 people in one day. The second in the presidential series called "Debate '08: Obama Girl vs. Giuliani Girl" was posted on Monday (July 16) and was viewed by more than 350,000 people by Thursday (July 18).
    It is not clear yet whether the video has been able to attract younger people to politics but it is something the producers hope to achieve.
    "Here's a song that was created to be funny but the song is really about politics and kids are humming songs about Barack Obama and Rudy Giuliani and I think that's exciting," said Relles. The success of the video highlights how powerful user generated sites have become in shaping public discourse.
    "The last election there wasn't this tool where if somebody wanted to create a video, they could immediately have it in front of millions of people and we do now," said Relles.
    All political candidates are fair game and the producers plan on making more spoof videos of the other presidential hopefuls.
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