Book

Obama Zombies

📖 Overview

Obama Zombies examines the 2008 Obama presidential campaign's strategies for capturing the youth vote. The book analyzes how digital marketing, social media, and pop culture were deployed to reach young voters during the election. The text documents specific campaign tactics and messaging used to connect with college-aged Americans. It covers the campaign's presence on platforms like Facebook and YouTube, as well as its partnerships with entertainment and media figures. Through interviews and research, Mattera chronicles how the Obama campaign built what would become the largest youth voter turnout in American electoral history. The book includes analysis of campaign data, marketing materials, and media coverage from 2008. The book presents a critical examination of modern political messaging and its impact on younger generations of voters. It raises questions about media literacy, political marketing, and the intersection of pop culture and electoral politics in the digital age.

👀 Reviews

Reader reviews portray this book as a partisan political critique targeting young Obama supporters. Based on 300+ online reviews: What readers liked: - Research into media tactics and campaign strategies - Analysis of youth voter outreach methods - Documentation of specific examples - Conversational writing style What readers disliked: - Aggressive, mocking tone throughout - Limited source citations - Focus on criticism over solutions - Many felt it was more rant than analysis Multiple readers noted the book seemed rushed to publication to capitalize on 2008 campaign aftermath. Several conservative readers felt the confrontational approach undermined valid points. Ratings: Goodreads: 3.3/5 (168 ratings) Amazon: 3.5/5 (214 ratings) Barnes & Noble: 3.4/5 (42 ratings) Common review quote: "Makes some legitimate observations about media influence on young voters but gets lost in partisan attacks rather than substantive analysis."

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The Marketing of Evil by David Kupelian This analysis reveals marketing strategies used to shift cultural values and political viewpoints among demographic groups.

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The Death of Right and Wrong by Tammy Bruce This critique explores the impact of modern cultural institutions on young Americans' political ideologies and decision-making.

🤔 Interesting facts

🗳️ The book reached #14 on the New York Times bestseller list in April 2010, reflecting significant public interest in post-2008 election analysis. 📱 Jason Mattera wrote this book at age 27, making him one of the youngest authors to publish a major political analysis through Simon & Schuster. 🌟 The 2008 Obama campaign's social media strategy resulted in 5 million supporters across 15 different social networks, setting new benchmarks for digital political outreach. 🎓 Youth voter turnout in the 2008 election increased by 3.4 million compared to 2004, representing one of the largest jumps in young voter participation in American history. 🎭 The book's title references the popular zombie genre trend of the late 2000s, which saw works like "Pride and Prejudice and Zombies" become cultural phenomena, cleverly tying political commentary to pop culture.