Agit-Pop and Andrew Boyd

At RootsCamp DC, I went to a workshop led by Andrew Boyd from Agit-Pop on the use of irony and humor in pushing progressive issues.

Boyd led the workshop along w/ a former Onion editor and another dude.

The session started out with everyone do jumping jacks.

They went on to show some video examples of media using humor/irony to carry social/political commentary.

He talked about this Yes Men project:

And a handful of other really funny media stunts that struck me as very effective.

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Here is a video Agit-Pop helped produce that won for best Youtube political video in 2007:

More Obama Inspired Creativity

Austin, TX. This lady didn’t like that her Obama lawn sign disappeared.

Check out her solution:

Who knows if it’s environmentally friendly…but try to steal that suckas!

This local news report, which is getting spread for free on the net, is more effective than campaign ads at disseminating pro-Obama content.

(via Cynical-C)

Obamabot -> Demonstration Robots -> Mechanized Protest

This U. of Florida student creation got a mention in the New York Times. (via Ben Smith)

uwire.com has a little more info:

ObamaBot, a nearly 6-foot-tall, student-made robot, drew a crowd of followers in its wake like a marching band conductor on wheels, waving its android arms with Barack Obama campaign posters from side to side in response to the remote control held by one of its creators.

“This is the first phase in demonstration robots,” said Bryan Hood, an electrical and mechanical engineering junior, who thought of the project a month ago. “The long-run goal is to have robotic marches on Washington,” Hood said.

Dictionary.com may need to update this:

Poltical Machine – noun – a group that controls the activities of a political party; “he was endorsed by the Democratic machine” [syn: machine]