More than 1,000 of the University students who flocked to YouTube during Student Government election week hoping to encounter comical videos unknowingly stumbled upon SG campaign messages.
Cody Wells and Kathleen Bordelon, recently elected SG president and vice president, set a precedent for future candidates by incorporating well-known University viral videos into their campaign strategy as “accidental exposure,” Bordelon said.
“Dougie in My Snuggie LSU” and “LSU Lil Finals Week Bounce” went viral on campus last year.
Myles Laroux, international studies junior, and Logan Baudean, University alumnus, created the video titled “LSU lil finals week TEASER” for the NOW campaign.
And Laroux, along with finance freshman DeJarion “DJ” Neely, accounting freshman Jermaine Mathis and international trade and finance freshman Rachel Sadberry filmed the video titled “Dougie In My Snuggie LSU Part 2.”
Wells and Bordelon told Laroux and Neely to name their videos so nobody knew they contained campaign messages.
“We released those videos in the hopes that we would reach an audience that otherwise would not be reached by traditional campaign methods,” Wells said.
The idea for the videos sparked at a campaign meeting, Laroux said, because he was already working on Wells and Bordelon’s ticket. Laroux said when Wells approached him about making a video, he gladly obliged. The video was released at midnight on general election day.
Laroux said once Wells and Bordelon advanced to the runoff elections, he asked Neely if he was interested in doing a “collab” for another election week video so they could reach a different fan base.
“We did the videos for Cody and Kathleen,” Laroux said. “That was our primary objective.”
The “finals week” video does not mention Wells and Bordelon’s campaign until 1 minute and 16 seconds in, and the campaign is mentioned 23 seconds into the “Dougie” video. The videos went viral on Facebook.
Bob Mann, political communication professor, said he hasn’t been exposed to the “accidental exposure” tactic, but it could be effective with a certain demographic.
“In politics, you should always know your audience and use the most effective means to communicate to that audience,” Mann said.
Social media played an integral role in this year’s elections. Billy Wright, SG commissioner of elections, said social media makes his job easier because he is able to encourage more people to vote, as evidenced by this year’s “Geaux Vote” campaign.
However, Wright said he would like to add a “social media clause” to the election code to make more concrete decisions about violations. In this year’s elections, presidential and vice presidential candidates David Jones and Kacey Brister were disqualified from the runoff for sending “unsolicited Facebook messages” through a group Jones created his freshman year.
Aaron Caffarel, former presidential candidate, filed a complaint against Jones for sending e-mails to members of his campaign, but the University Court found Jones not guilty. Jones and Brister also included videos in their campaign strategy, but they were more serious in tone.
All four SG campaigns this year — Together LSU, Defining Our Future, NOW and Open Source — had Facebook pages and established logos. Mann said social media encourages people to become not only campaign supporters, but also members of a movement.
Mann referenced President Barack Obama’s “My Barack Obama” website during the 2008 elections as an example of a politician giving supporters a “meaningful role to play.”
Mann said the Internet “creates possibilities for volunteers to not only help, but help in their own way on their own time.”
With more than 1,700 views on the “finals week” video and nearly 1,900 views on “Dougie,” Neely, Wells and Bordelon said people said they voted for Wells and Bordelon after watching the videos. One user commented on the “finals week” video on YouTube saying, “I swear I voted for Cody just because of this video.”
Laroux said while there is no method of determining if the videos earned Wells one vote or 1,000 votes, he is impressed with the number of views on YouTube.
“We loved getting to play the role of making funny videos for the campaign,” Laroux said.
Neely said he and the “Snuggie crew” enjoyed making the videos, as well, and approached them with the mindset of “anything we can do to help, anything to encourage more people to vote.”
Wells said voters thanked him for including the videos in his campaign because they “reached out to them.”
“They saw students like Myles and like DJ endorsing us, and they said, ‘You know what? If these kind of people are going to endorse Cody and Kathleen, I will too,'” Wells said.
While Wells and Bordelon said the videos were used as a persuasion device, Mann said research shows the Internet is mostly used to motivate people who are already in support of a campaign, while using the Internet as a means of persuasion is “more daunting.”
Wells and Bordelon said they plan to release SG video updates throughout their administration. Wells said they hope to work with administrators to make the LSU broadcast system more Facebook-oriented.
 
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Contact Andrea Gallo at [email protected]