The platforms and ideologies that make up any campaign have to be pushed out into the world somehow in order for them to be heard and recognized, which puts a great emphasis on effective marketing techniques. These past few years, social media has been a major tool in getting the word out, but candidates are still leaning on tried-and-true methods like chalking. While everyone else is ranking candidates on their platforms and other things, we at the Clog took it upon ourselves to find the best ASUC chalking campaigns. It’s amazing what some people can do with a stick of colored powder from our childhoods!
Hailey Simpson/Staff
Best Use of Iconography: Kat’s name presented her with a unique opportunity to cash in on: cats everywhere. While her chalk design is pretty standard, her cat logo that has been purring along at seemingly every street corner has pranced into the brains of all Berkeley cat-lovers. Hint: There are a lot of them.
Hailey Simpson/Staff
Best Use of Simplicity: We aren’t told of her party. We aren’t given any icons. We seemingly don’t really know her at all, yet this campaign is still greatly effective. We’re given all we need to know, repeated more times than we need. You may get tired of seeing the sidewalk squares of Durant etched with her name and exclaim, “Wow, these Karen Lee #179 chalkings are everywhere!” Bam, it’s in your brain.
Hailey Simpson/Staff
Best Use of Space: The members of this campaign team certainly thought Telegraph was their oyster. And by Telegraph, we mean the entire width of Telegraph. All of it. Whoever said chalking was confined to sidewalks didn’t faze these teamsters. It’s a very simple design, like the one in the blurb above, but instead of being repeated, it fills that whole space. You could probably read it from a mile away, and that’s effective.
Hailey Simpson/Staff
Hailey Simpson/Staff
Best ‘You Tried’: The rain interrupted the campaign season in a big way this year, literally washing away the dreams of earnest chalkers. We’re sure that these chalk campaigns looked great when they made their debut, and no doubt the team put a great deal of time into them, but they were left almost unrecognizable after the storms hit. Perhaps they’ll gain some unanticipated sympathy (that is, if people can read what’s left of their chalked information).
Hailey Simpson/Staff
Jasmine Mausner/Senior Staff
Best Use of Color: Marketing campaigns are all about catching the eye, and what better way to do that than color? Any and all colors do the job: primary, neon and pastel. These candidates have used them well. The one on the top has perhaps fallen victim to the rain as the ones above, and the one below had some serious access to some unconventional neon chalk colors. But both of them utilize color and 3-D text to their advantage. Bravo, our eyes are caught!
Hailey Simpson/Staff
Hailey Simpson/Staff
Best Use of Stencil: Who said chalking has to be free-form? Seeking out other methods such as stencils is one of the most creative approaches we’ve seen. Not only does it get their name and number out, it gets people familiar with their smiling faces (thus humanizing the campaign), and is quite memorable. Props, whoever in CalSERVE came up with this technique! We love it.
What are some of your favorite campaign chalkings? Let us know in the comments.
Editor’s note: These candidates do not reflect the endorsements of The Daily Californian nor individual staffers. You can view the ASUC endorsements of The Daily Californian here.
Contact Hailey Simpson at [email protected] or follow her on Twitter at @hailey117.