I got a note Wednesday evening from the HuffPo PR gang about Sam Stein‘s discovery that John McCain had launched a redesigned website that had some similarities to Barack Obama’s. Or, as it was put in the inimitable HuffPo style, “McCain Rips Off Obama’s Slogan And Logo.”
As to the first:
On Tuesday, the Senator co-opted the slogan that has come to personify Obama’s candidacy, taking the Illinois Democrat’s “Change You Can Believe In” and altering it into “A Leader You Can Believe In.”
The similarity is too close to be an accident. My guess is that this is a dig, not theft. McCain is contrasting his training and experience with Obama’s promises.
Now there is this. On Wednesday, the McCain campaign put out a new homepage, featuring his new, Obama-like slogan, and an image that seems uncannily similar to Obama’s trademark campaign logo – the red and white stripped valley under what appears to be a blue sun (or in McCain’s case, blue sun rays). Take a look.
The power was out at my house, so I had to wait until I got to work the next morning, but I did. I was shocked — shocked! — at what I found. McCain had blatantly stolen Obama’s unique and novel idea of using red, white, and blue on a presidential campaign site!
Aside from having an old white guy rather than a middle aged black guy, not having the circular Obama logo, and an almost completely different page layout, these are IDENTICAL. (And nice touch by Team McCain to put their candidate in what appears to be a prison shirt, thus subtly evoking his five years as a POW.)
Of course, it’s only fair to point out that Obama stole the idea from Betsy Ross.
Sarcasm aside, I thought this was a rather lame story and ignored it until I saw that Josh Marshall and Hotline were touting it. I’m not an art major but I’m just not seeing it.
