Given the online success Barack Obama had during the 2008 campaign, a focus on new media from the GOP was only natural. However, I don’t think the mantra, “imitation is the sincerest form of flattery,” is necessarily what LA Gov. Bobby Jindal was aiming for when he emulated Obama’s graphics on his own campaign site.

The most flagrant of the copies is Jindal’s use of the now infamous Obama horizon in an image asking visitors to sign up for text alerts. Not only was the horizon used in the backgrounds for many images from Obama, it was also the center piece and logo of his campaign taking form in “the sun” logo.

These images most likely appeal broadly to Obama supporters after seeing them repeatedly throughout a long and drawn out campaign. Is Jindal visually reaching across the aisle with these graphics?

See the image taken from Jindal’s homepage here:

Bobby Jindal uses the Obama horizon.

Also emulated in the above image is Obama’s use of font styling. Compare with an image from the Obama campaign below:

In addition, Bobby Jindal’s site displays another image reminiscent of BarackObama.com. In this image he uses italics for the word “the” in the phrase “shop the store” in the same way that the Obama campaign did in most of their graphics.

Bobby uses italics

You can see a similar use of italics from the Obama campaign here and here.

UPDATE 4:26 AM:

The RNC is using the Obama horizon on their website as well. See the picture below:

Also, see the RNC’s pitch to their members asking them (50,000 of them) to join their Facebook page. Notice that “Republican National Committee” is very BLUE:

I know what you’re thinking. It does look a lot like this image on Barack Obama’s current homepage: