A while back it was announced that Twitter was going to allow politicians to pay for promoted tweets.  And, low and behold, on this seemingly ordinary Thursday afternoon in January, I’ve just seen my first political promoted tweet.

Sandwiched inbetween a piece of e-affection from my housemate’s ex-girlfriend to one of her chums and an update from a visual research agency I once used, was a message from Presidential-hopeful Mitt Romney.

Well-written, inspirational and likely to get his base supporters retweeting away.  However, as is always the case with social media, Romney’s detractors are equally quick to point out their percieved faults with the message (see below).

The nature of the Twitter audience means that public detractors are 100% guaranteed, however, this is not a reason to shy away from using the medium.  But it does require a high-level of confidence in the fact that the message you want to send will have a net benefit.

Want to know how long it takes the world record holder of earnings via financial trading to make your annual salary?  Then look no further.

The site asks you to input your wage and then lets you know how depressingly quickly John Paulson, a financial trader who earned a record $4.9 billion in 2010, earns your miserly take-home pay.

I thought this was political advert for some sort of anti-capitalist / Occupy / Robin Hood Tax type organistion.  It turns out it’s a genuine piece of communication for a trading site that is due to open next year.

It’s not meant to be a political advert, but for the majority of people, it inadvertently is.

On January 14th 2011 President (and dictator) Ben Ali was chased out of Tunisia in a popular, democratic uprising.

This event had a huge impact on life in Tunisia (and across the Arab world), however 10 months after the event many people – now free of their shackles – began to lose interest in politics and there was a genuine fear that the first free and fair elections would have a low turnout.

This was particularly worrying as there’s plenty of research to suggest that if you don’t vote the first time you are eligible to do so, you are less likely to turn out in future ballots.

The equivalent of the electoral commission decided to restore a giant poster of the former dictator that used to be a landmark of a suburban area of Tunis.  Passers-by are astounded and seemingly nervous when they see it in the morning, however, soon their stupefaction shifts to anger and the revolutionary tendency returns.

The whole episode was filmed by secret camera and subsequently turned into the best ‘get the vote out’ video I’ve seen.

(hat tip @TomBage)

ActionAid have released a video calling for greater transparency in the Afhan peace process.

The NGO acknowledges that talks are going on between Western governments and The Taliban but calls for greater involvement of women in the discussions.

The film is based on interviews of 1000 women 10 years after US-led forces invaded the country.

The film is nicely put together and gives clarity and poignancy to a topic that is rarely covered by mainstream media outlets.

The tragedy for the political advertising sector (and possibly the state of the world) is that this spot has received a huge amount press coverage and will probably do positive things for the SLD Party.

The Danish Liberal Party fell at the most basic of advertising hurdles recently when they produced an attack advert using a well-known photograph of their opposition in an advertising campaign, but neglected to clear the image-rights. 

In the campaign voters are prompted to “Look behind the facade” of the opposition pair, only to discover that they are no more than plywood placards – a visual metaphore for the candidates lacking any depth or substance.

Political attack advertising so regularly backfires due to the messaging missing the mark, that in order to give it any chance whatsoever, the basic legality and clearances of  the advert have to be absolutely nailed down. 

To have an advert pulled because of a copyright technicality is a real kick in the teeth to the campaign manager.

(Thanks SarahMKD for sending)

The Economist Newspaper have released a new batch of provocative posters that question people travelling on the London Underground as to their views on key issues of the day.

(NB I am involved in this project so any comments will be treated with hypersensitivity and prickliness)

There’s a fair number of unofficial ‘AV isn’t that complicated’ posters and videos doing the rounds.

This execution uses the analogy of a group of people deciding where they want to go for a drink to explain it.

This (and many others) are nicely put together and certainly help demystify the AV system.

However, what the Yes camp have been struggling for throughout the campaign is that silver bullet sentence that explains as well as it convinces.

‘Wipe the smile’ is a classic piece of opposition messaging.

This execution tries to convince Labour supporters that voting yes to the referendum is as important as voting Labour in the upcoming local elections.

I think it works. Labour people are constantly worrying about what the ‘Labour’ thing to do is and this poster plays on that insecurity nicely.

This video / interview is hilarious.

We hear Francis Maude getting caught off-guard by an interviewer questioning (during an interview about volunteering / Big Society) his level of charity work  whilst at the same time being treated to some amusing visual augmentation.

Very good.  Wouldn’t surprise me one bit if this goes viral.

(Thanks to Matt for sending).