From Dolphin Costumes to Deepfakes: 20 Years of Campaigning in the Digital Age
Campaigns still chase clicks, but now they also worry whether their ads will even run or whether AI spoofs will upend their strategy.
In 2004, a microsite called FlipperCam was built from a folding chair in a back room of Madison Square Garden. The mission was to upload videos of interns dressed in dolphin costumes chasing John Kerry around, branding him a “flip-flopper.”
The tools used were HTML, Windows Movie Maker and a $30,000-a-month streaming server.
The site went viral and a silly idea helped shape the public narrative of a presidential candidate. Two decades later, the costumes are gone but the incentives remain the same: grab attention, shape perception and win the story before someone else does.
The difference now is that powerful social media platforms are turning into artificial intelligence companies, the stakes are higher than ever and the tools available to campaigns are both dazzling and potentially dangerous.
Author's summary: Campaigning in the digital age has evolved significantly over 20 years.