'Obama Girl' video represents new wave of voter-driven ads

NEW YORK -- Given all that's at stake in the 2008 presidential race, it's a bit terrifying to realize that by one measure, a major role is being played by an aspiring model/actress/fashion designer/former beauty pageant contestant named Amber.

That's Amber Lee Ettinger, aka Obama Girl, whose racy Web video "I Got A Crush On Obama" has gotten more than 2 million hits in the three weeks it's been online, making it one of the most-watched political videos this season.

Some people have gotten so used to their daily fix of Web videos, it's hard to remember that back in 2004, when President Bush spoke of "the Internets," there was no YouTube.

Three years later, people are calling this the "YouTube Election" -- in which anyone with a minicam or even a mere cell phone can conceivably affect the outcome. "Some of the best, the most innovative stuff is gonna come from some voter out there, who changes the entire complexion of the race," said Joe Trippi, former campaign manager for Howard Dean in 2004, now adviser to the John Edwards campaign.

And that's a scary thing for campaigns, which are used to controlling their own message, enforcing it from the top down. On the new playing field, "you lose the ability to manage what you want to say," said Democratic strategist Chris Lehane, a former Clinton White House staffer.

So what's a campaign manager to do? Fight back, with all the technology available: MySpace and Facebook profiles, candidates' own online communities, text-messaging networks. On Sen. Barack Obama's site, you can download ringtones with snippets of his speeches set to a rock or hip-hop motif.

In the YouTube video, the famous (or infamous) Obama Girl frolics in a bikini, red underwear or a tight Obama T-shirt, lip-synching words like "You're into border security -- let's break this border between you and me." Though salacious, the Obama Girl video is unlikely to hurt the candidate and might help: "It contributes to the image of him being the hip candidate, the fresh face," said Daniel Kurtzman, editor of About.com's political humor Web site.

To Kurtzman, the video captures an essential truth about the online medium: With a less attractive model and a slightly worse song, "maybe 10 people would have seen it."

Obama's campaign is trying more G-rated ways of getting attention -- like text messaging and its new ringtone feature. "It's just another way that people can feel connected to the campaign," said spokeswoman Jen Psaki.

Obama, whose fund-raising success has wowed observers, is also getting more Internet buzz than his rivals. Nielsen added up mentions in blogs and discussion groups and found Obama had nearly 46 percent of Democratic chatter compared to Clinton's 32 percent. (Overall, Democrats were ahead of Republicans.) And it seems the Obama-produced videos have been hooking viewers: Visitors to his site stay an average of six minutes, 21 seconds.