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SEAN TEVIS IS AWARE OF YOUR INTERNET TRADITIONS.
Sean Tevis is a candidate for state representative in Kansas. Like a lot of young candidates challenging entrenched incumbents in minor races, Tevis has a fundraising problem: He needs money. Not that much of it, but more than his parents/wife are willing to give him. So he hit on an innovative solution: Co-opt an internet cartoon with a huge and intensely devoted audience (XKCD), use its form and rhythm to tell the story of why people should donate to him, and then watch the links, and the money, roll in. This is fundraising on the extreme end of the long tail, and it's pretty cool. Also, his XKCD takeoff isn't half bad.
COMMENTS (5)
Pretty clever - and looks effective. I wonder what the total dollars look like (or aver. donation).
Things they are a-changin, but ohhhhh so slowly. I'll literally be on my second life by the time real progressives control the agenda, me thinks.
Posted by: JimPortlandOR | July 18, 2008 12:18 PM
THIS! IS! THE! INTERNET!!!
With upwards of 4,000 donors so far, even if everyone only gave up a fiver, he'd still have a substantial amount of booty. I think the sheer number of people he reached is what's amazing about this.
Still, this is Kansas, after all. And as my fellow Oregonian said above, it might take a good generation or two before such campaign strategies and vision become truly mainstream. How long after Goldwater did it take for his followers to get in government again?
Posted by: Stefan | July 18, 2008 12:31 PM
Not half bad!?
There's NO mouse-over text! How can you make an XKCD pastiche nad not include it?
Posted by: Anthony Damiani | July 18, 2008 2:33 PM
Our midwestern local candidates make much better cartoons than their midwestern local candidates. Or maybe Kansas is just cooler than Oklahoma.
Posted by: cminus | July 18, 2008 2:35 PM
I love his tagline about running for office: "It's like a flamewar with a forum troll, but with an eventual winner."
XKCD is clearly not the only Internet tradition that Sean Tevis is aware of.
Posted by: low-tech cyclist | July 18, 2008 2:35 PM