Political Satire Changes the (New Media) World

An Evening with Ben Relles, Founder of BarelyPolitical.com
The political arena has been one of the heaviest contributors to the social media revolution. The 2008 presidential election saw a groundbreaking new media campaign from President Barack Obama, including mobile marketing, liveblogging, and online video, but was also at the epicenter of a groundswell in online political satire, including The Last Republican, endless user-generated parodies of candidates, and one of the most compelling viral video campaigns of all time Obama Girl.
The singular creation of BarelyPolitical.com’s Ben Relles, the Obama Girl phenomenon (due in no small part to the performance of actress Amber Lee Ettinger) captured the public fascination with then-candidate Obama and helped lay the foundation for online discourse that, in many ways, rivaled mainstream media’s attempts to keep up with netizens.
See some behind the scenes of the first Obama Girl shot in ScribeMedia’s studio.
Ben Relles, founder, BarelyPolitical.com
Ben Relles launched his political satire website BarelyPolitical.com with the hit video “I Got a Crush on Obama.” In total, he has produced more than 150 online videos, which have been viewed more than 200 million times worldwide. Recently, Ben launched BarelyDigital.com, an online video network satirizing the world of technology. He has spoken at conferences that include: Forbes MEET, Streaming Media East, and NATPE; has guest lectured on college campuses nationwide, and appears regularly on MSNBC, Fox News, and CNN. Born in Wisconsin, Ben was raised in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. After college, Ben co-founded MarketVision, Inc., where he was a partner from 1997 - 2002. Later, Ben received his MBA from the Wharton School, and has spent time working for Omnicom marketing agencies.
Moderated by Chris Pfaff, President, Chris Pfaff Tech/Media LLC; board delegate, PGA New Media Council
A board delegate of the PGA New Media Council since 2006, and a PGA NMC member since 2004, Chris Pfaff leads a consultancy Chris Pfaff Tech/Media LLC that represents some of the leading service providers, audio/video technology firms, networking vendors, and media companies in the world, from PRIMEDIA and Eastman Kodak to Cantor Telecom. A veteran of the venture world, Chris helped launch more than 20 ventures from the Lucent New Ventures Group, including iBiquity Digital; Flarion; Lucent Digital Video, and GeoVideo Networks, among others. In addition, he has helped launch AT&T?s Internet strategy; the Viacom New Media division of Viacom, Inc.; Sony Electronics? Digital Betacam format, and Sharp Electronics? LCD product division.