This past week while perusing political blogs for a J176 assignment, I came across the recent phenomenon that is a little website called Texts from Hillary in an article from The Huffington Post. The site is naught but a simple meme Tumblr that takes images of celebrities texting and imagines the dry, humorous, badass response from Hillary. What started as a joke between two buddies had turned into a global obsession-of-the-moment when Hillz herself entered a submission to the site and invited its creators to meet her.
The reason this story caught my eye is that I appreciated the good natured humor Hillary exuded regarding the meme. Having just written about the benefits of utilizing new media in political campaigns for a class, I loved the way that she embraced the meme rather than ignoring it or treating it as if it wasn't worth her time. This acknowledgement of the people's cleverness is an action that I believe sets politicians of today apart from those of the past, or at least sets apart those I approve of from their faceless competitors.
Sadly, while researching for this blog post, I came across the news that the Texts from Hillary page is now dead, and that no new posts will be added. According to its creators, the huge influx of attention, especially the recognition from Clinton, has become too much. For them, there is no possible way that they could top Hillary's own submission, and would prefer to just let the meme lie. While this is an unfortunate development, I am still impressed by the way Hillary responded, and hope other politicians take a cue from her media fluency in their own public relations.
Have a great week!
~Morgen~
Texts from Hillary:
http://textsfromhillaryclinton.tumblr.com/
The Huffington Post article:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/04/10/texts-from-hillary-clinton_n_1415551.html
"'Texts from Hillary' calls it quits":
http://news.cnet.com/8301-13772_3-57412692-52/texts-from-hillary-calls-it-quits/
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