You probably haven't seen Jon Huntsman's videos, because um, this 2012 Republican Presidential candidate has been a little under the radar. In fact, Huntsman's campaign manager, Susie Wiles, stepped down on July 22, just a month after he formally announced his campaign. Her seat was filled by Matt David, the campaign's communication's director, which means the American people are in for something...well...different.
Different is the keyword in Huntsman's communications strategy. It's the title of the first (of five, to date) "About Jon" videos on his website. All of the "About Jon" videos are narrated by a cowboy voice (what better character to tell of the American Independent Spirit!) who speaks slowly and calmly while a guitar strums. These videos are certainly different in that they reject the traditional time length of Internet videos--one of them clocks out at 5:06, epic in Internet time.
The "Different" video is high budget and polished--hi-definition eye candy reminiscent of a car ad. Huntsman (out of his own deep pocket) went as far to hire a plane to film a motorcyclist careening through the beautiful Utah dessert. It's so pretty to look at, you just might stick around for 4 minutes. The gentle cowboy narrator tells a story about a dude (former Governor of Utah and ambassador to China under, ahem, Obama) who is different: a prog rock musician who ostensibly likes to ride his bike through the open roads of our great country. That's all this video is--one long road trip while white text emphasizing the important words of the narration fade in and out of the screen. "Just doing what he always has, making life better for his family, for your family, this guy is different." Right...right...there's a surreal, hypnotic quality to this: you can just let yourself go, forget about what he's talking about, and imagine it's you on that road.
By the time you watch the fifth "About Jon" video though, that cowboy voice begins to get a bit exasperating. On the one hand Huntsman is different--probably too different (aka moderate) for most of the Republican base--and at the same time he's smugly conventional. While the fun-fact about Jon quitting school to tour with his rock band is amusing, the family scrapbook photo album kind of makes you want to vomit, because your family probably isn't so picture perfect. When will the American fascination with marrying your high school sweetheart end? Do we REALLY need to know about Jon's favorite taco stand in LA? Also, like any good campaign video, this one could use some fact checking. Anyone who knows anything about the Huntsman family is aware that it wasn't "middle class" for long. Huntsman Sr. is a billionaire--and one of the nation's leading philanthropists.
Jon Huntsman Jr. may actually have more videos on his website than any other presidential candidate. The campaign is betting heavy on video, going as far to title it's video page "HTV," and the page is worthy of the "channel" nomenclature. There are not only five "About Jon" videos, there are a whopping 31 talking-head videos of Jon on the issues and 22 "daily videos" that are short, off the cuff shots of Jon on the campaign trail, that may or may not have been filmed on a flip cam. The daily videos include such fascinating fodder as Jon shooting pool, and Jon at an all-you-can-eat buffet.
Huntsman hired a designer to build a unique site for him that highlights his twitter, facebook, blog, and video feeds (but not YouTube--apparently that would be too conventional). It even has its own scrapbook timeline of Jon's life. Until recently, there was an interactive collage map of the U.S. made up of people's faces who had contributed to the campaign. (This strategy, yes, is different than that of Michelle Bachmann's website, for example, which looks like it was built with a free cookie-cutter Joomla! theme.)
Pretty weird stuff, but before long, you may realize you've spent 15 minutes in this wacky Huntsman world. What's the hook? Well, the Atlantic Wire revealed that the strategist behind the candidate is Republican image consultant Fred Davis, an expert at bringing the world so-weird-you-can't-stop-watching-videos, including the viral "Demon Sheep" ad for Carly Fiorina and the "I'm You" ad for Christine O'Donnell (the witch).
Will the motorbike video go viral? It hasn't yet, but until then, Huntsman's just gonna keep being different, and ride that dirt bike off the map.