Obamicon Me!

You may not know it by name, but Obamicon.ME is hard to miss if you're on Facebook, Twitter, or part of any other social networking group. The site, run by Paste magazine, allows users to emulate Shepard Fairey's multi-hued Barack Obama HOPE portrait from the presidential campaign, and individualized portraits are now everywhere.

According to Paste's publisher, the site has garnered seven million page views since it launched on January 7 with more than one million unique visitors and 200,000 registered users. Its Facebook application alone has 32,000 users and it's becoming more viral every day.

"Clearly, the president has achieved a level of celebrity that is rare in politics and that has resulted in coattails that extend to commerce," says Tim Regan-Porter, president of Paste. "Part of that is his blend of intelligence, oratorical skills and likability. Part of it is a national need to move beyond the economic and political malaise we find ourselves in."

Paste publisher Nick Purdy, who launched the Obamicon.ME site to capture the inaugural hype and connect those who couldn't make it to D.C., says people have been very comfortable expressing their views with it. "Obamicon.ME offered a way to be a part of all the hullabaloo," he says.

In fact, Jake Tapper of ABC News used it recently to make a comment on the president's violation of his much-touted "no lobbyists" policy by creating an image of Obama's nominee to be deputy Defense Secretary, former Raytheon lobbyist William Lynn:

"I'm sure we'll be seeing lots of Kurt Warner and Ben Roethlisberger Obamicons this week as we approach the Super Bowl," says Purdy.

The inauguration was its highest traffic day, with elevated traffic days following the inauguration. It has slowed somewhat as the afterglow faded.

The artwork itself and the copy-cat hype is reminiscent of Andy Warhol's famous Marilyn Monroe and Jackie O. portraits, in that it's an up-close facial rendering shaded in by non-traditional, almost slapdash colors and shadowing.

by Joan R. Magee