The GOP is trying a “new” tactic to gather email addresses - March Madness. John McCain earned some attention by using a similar idea as a campaign tool in 2008. In McCain’s version, supporters would submit their email addresses and complete a bracket to compete with the Maverick’s NCAA favorites. Now, the GOP is trying a less original angle.
In the GOP’s March Madness Desperation, states - not teams - are pitted against one another. How does a state score points on its competition you ask? Easy! By convincing fellow residents to sign up for the GOP’s email list! Here’s the explanation of the bracket:
Watch this bracket from March 16 to April 7 as supporters from 32 states compete to see who can get the most e-mail signups! To participate, just click the “Join The Bracket” button below. At the end of each round, the state that has generated the most new e-mail addresses will advance. On April 7, the entire GOP.com tournament bracket will fill out, and the state that has the most signups will be named the National Champion.
Desperate much? The GOP isn’t even masking their attempt to collect email addresses. To bad I can’t join in. My home state of Washington didn’t get a bid.
1 Comments until now.
This GOP bracket project is only as much reflection of “desperation” as is any ploy to get e-mail addresses employed by every political figure or entity in the country. By which I mean, every politician or interest group should want to gather as many e-mail addresses as they possibly can. The RNC is only doing what everyone else does–it’s just in the normal course of activities for an political committee. I think a greater sign of desperation would be if they were trying to collect e-mail addresses through subversive, deceptive means, in which they would take measures to conceal that they were trying to collect e-mail addresses. THat they openly ask for e-mail addresses is just a reflection of how standard it is. It’s not like doing this bracket thing costs the RNC much of anything; and the RNC probably has plenty of e-mail addresses already, anyway.
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