Submitted by The Elephant on Wed, 07/01/2009 - 09:41
UPDATE- July 1 @ 10PM: The response from the Otten Campaign was received by The Republican Project and is posted in the comments section of this post
Remarkable similarity between Otten's website copy and that of Obama's.
The plagiarism charge has been made by Democrat media outlets - what do you think?
Here is the footer of the two websites:
Here are the headers of the two websites:
Here are their donate buttons:
Here's the link to Otten's website.
The Republican Project has inquired about this issue with the Otten campaign, and once we have their response it will be posted here.
Post your thoughts in the comments.........................
Judgement on website design and judgement on policy are two different things, IMO. For what it's worth he has definitely drawn a lot of attention to, not only his website, but his campaign as well. Maybe the logo choice wasn't such a bad idea after all.
The very first thing I noticed when going to Otten's website was indeed his logo that looks very similar to Obama's. It may be a smart advertising tactic to attract the Dems and unenrolled who supported BO, but certainly not a smart move, running as a Republican candidate in the state of Maine. I, personally find it a turn off and think he should have been more creative and come up with something unique. I, too, support the candidate for his stand on the issues and what's best for Maine, but if he is making a decision to have a logo resembling BO's, then I question his judgment.
Having a long history with Mr. Otten, I will come to his defense on this one. The logo is quite reminiscent of the Sunday River logo in the LBO days. I compared it to a stylized necklace I had made for my Women's Turn program, and the way the lines squiggle at the bottom is much like the ski trail design. In fact the Obama team could be accused of stealing the sunrise from the current Sunday River design. Except, that would be preposterous.
As Ted pointed out, there are a limited number of good colors, red, blue, white and green have been vetted for appeal, yadayadayada there are far more important aspects to the governor's race.
It is unfortunate that the Maine Democratic Party is focusing on the design of www.lesotten.com rather than its content. It is interesting that the Maine Democratic Party has forgotten that President Obama’s campaign logo was initially accused of copying the Pepsi logo.
We are very proud of our website, which was built from scratch, from the ground up, by a locally owned company – INsyt of Farmington, Maine. This is the initial website of the Les Otten Exploratory Campaign and we anticipate that additional information will be added as Les travels throughout the state listening to the people of Maine. We encourage people to visitwww.lesotten.com often to follow the progress of the campaign.
The Les Otten Exploratory Campaign did not copy from anyone’s website. We built the website up from the letter “O” because Les’ last name begins with the letter “O.” We used industry standard templates placing images on the website where people’s eyes naturally follow. The color schemes of blue, red and green are prevalent throughout political websites across the United States. The green leaf surrounding the “O” represents that Les will lead the renewal of Maine as a leader in energy independence, job creation and real tax reform.
We hope our opponents return to talking about the issues that are important to the people of the state of Maine.
Contact: Edie Smith mainedirections@gmail.com 207-557-5774
This is a non-issue. A good website design remains a good website design. Were I building a campaign's website, I'd be working very similarly: keep the colors light, primarily blue-themed (because red websites are harsh on the eyes), and use red for accents and white for text.
There are only so many ways to make an attractive website. Say he went with a white skin: people who have an interest in complaining about this will say "well, it looks like the White House site!" or "it looks like Obama's Recovery.gov site!". There's nothing really novel in this area to begin with. Heck, go look at the Republican National Committee's website. Are they copying from Obama, too? (Actually, probably yes, but for a good reason: he's the first major political candidate to get it right on this front.)
Edward, from a web design perspective it is not a big deal. Bright colors, slick, eye catching, same as everyone else's. But from a political perspective, to use a virtual duplicate of the logo of the leader in charge of the very party you are (supposedly) diametrically opposed to in every way is a big, hairy, nasty deal. In 2010 the message and its delivery will be of tremendous significance. The message Otten is sending with his ObamaOtten logo belies the fact that he has a message at all.
I am more concerned with the content of the candidate's qualifications as governor than the makeup of his website. Is there a comparison? We do not need Obama's shadow in the office at Augusta, that's a given.
If Mr. Otten has not been wise enough at the very outset, as a Republican candidate, to choose a logo that is wildly DIFFERENT than Obama's...he is not fit for the job. If you can't figure out the no brainer...then you might not be able to figure out the tough stuff. And at this point, Maine cannot; must not, take any chances.
His judgement is certainly in question right out of the gate.