Pictures and GIFs of pop star Taylor Swift were deployed by House Speaker John Boehner on Friday to rebut President Barack Obama's recent community college initiative, and constituents are not happy about it.
The backlash was felt immediately after the Office of the Speaker sent out an email with an unexpected subject line: "12 Taylor Swift GIFs for you." A corresponding tweet was sent out from the Speaker's official Twitter account the same morning.
Upon opening the email, subscribers were met with a serious-sounding article titled "Exposing the truth about the President’s 'free' college idea." Not at all serious, however, were the dancing pictures of Swift beneath the headline that attempted to explain the Speaker's policy toward higher education.
The article, which was written by Caleb Smith and Mike Ricci of Boehner's communications team, was a clear attempt to appear young and hip. It used GIFs, a popular file format for moving pictures, and a "listicle" format popularized by Buzzfeed.com — a popular web destination for young people.
Needless to say, it was a stinker. Not as bad as that time Karl Rove
tried to rap — but close.
Instead of seeing the success of the
"Texts from Hillary" Internet meme, the T-Swift article fell squarely on the side of failed media campaigns like
"Pajama Boy," the much-derided Obamacare promo devised by Organizing for America.
Below are a few tweets from the tidal wave of embarrassment and dismay launched by the Swift pics.