Flutterby™! : Robocall to Arms 2010-02-01 19:31:10.440685+00

Robocall to Arms

2010-02-01 19:31:10.440685+00 by petronius 3 comments

Arggh!! Tomorrow is the primary election in Illinois, and I got 3 robocalls in one hour from various people running for state comptroller, and two circuit court judges. Does anybody know it these calls are effective? It seems to me that an advertising method that pisses people off so much would end up being counterproductive for the advertiser. I guess the question, though, is what equals counterproductive? I never listen for much more than 5 seconds of one, so sometimes I have no idea which candidate is being promoted. thus, I can't conclude that since Honest Nowicky doesn't use robocalls, I should support him instead of Chicken-in-every-pot Przcinski. And is the Annoyance Quotient a fair way to determine the government? When I was a kid they used to pass out emery boards for your fingernails with the hopeful's name; at least those had some utility after the election. And of course, here in Chicago we have another electoral curse: (pdf) Fake Irishmen.

I think Karl Rove managed to play that side of it for quite a while without ever actually getting caught with sticker glue on his hands...

Robert Heinlein once wrote a non-SF story about a political campaign where one side put stickers on people's windshields extolling their opponent. The stickers were very hard to peel off. The problem with such a tactic is that if you get caught with the invoice from the sticker company you will engender more illwill for yourself.

Unfortunately, I think combatting these things requires more energy than we've got: You'd have to listen to them, find out who's behind them, and then mobilize friends to damage that candidate's chances in the polls, except...

this'd also be a perfect place for a reverse attack: As soon as there's a rebellion against robocalls, you'd simply switch to robocalling while pimping your opponent.