John Kasich’s campaign website: A review
John Kasich in Ohio. (Photo: Luke Sharrett/Bloomberg via Getty)
Today John Kasich announced his bid for the Republican primary nomination in a packed Ohio State University auditorium. His event brings the number of GOP candidates to a whopping 16, roughly the number of hairs that make up Donald Trump’s combover.
“I have the experience and the testing — the testing that prepares you for the most important job in the world,” he said to the crowd in a lengthy speech.
Kasich, who is less well known than some of his more outspoken Republican competitors, is waging a campaign based on his conservative fiscal record and grassroots support in a critical swing state. But judging from his understated website, it seems the longtime politician is struggling to translate his spitfire personality and political accomplishments for an online audience. Below I analyze his online campaign hub in the latest edition of RevURL.
Look and Feel
Kasich’s website demonstrates an uncommon aesthetic restraint (but that may just because it’s a relatively inexpensive WordPress template). Rather than slap all the “volunteer” and “donate” buttons at the very top of the page, the introductory image is simply a large banner photo of Kasich, framed by his logo and his lackluster catch phrase— “John Kasich is for us.” Below that is a bar with all the obligatory sign-up links. It’s a nice, if not subtle, change in this very repetitive world of campaign websites.
Scrolling down, you’ll notice that Kasich’s designers have opted for a parallax design, meaning objects in the background realign as you travel through the website. (This continues on his biography and news pages as well). It could very well be that this dynamic design is a way to distract visitors from the fact that there’s not much content in the first place, but it nonetheless makes what little material there is easier to read.
Almost immediately after you move past the header, blocky white letters invite you to “Meet John Kasich.” Here we see a circular photo of Kasich formatted against a bright blue backdrop. To the right is a long run-on sentence in a thin, white, semi-unreadable font that carries through the site.
This is around the time that Kasich runs out of material. Scroll down farther and there’s a big quote from him about the American dream, splashed across a lot of excess white space. Finally, below that are several downloadable cover images, meant for fans to spread across their social media accounts.
The whole thing is thoroughly presentable, and profoundly bland. Even his 404 page is joyless.
Logo
Kasich’s logo is a blocky red ‘K’ next to some simple squiggly red stripes. Though it’s clearly meant to align itself with the American flag, its slapdash execution looks more lazy than patriotic. Candidates, if your name doesn’t work with some vaguely American symbol, then don’t use one! Or, if you must, just slap a hardcore-looking eagle below your name, like Santorum did.
Content
The actual text on Kasich’s website is probably the least polished part of it. Take this astoundingly long run-on sentence, which reads suspiciously like something Kasich might say about himself:
“Husband, father, friend, person of faith, leader, change agent…John Kasich is a lot of things and through it all runs his honest, direct, authentic, tenacious approach to life that has allowed him, time and again, to do what they said couldn’t be done and, as his mom told him as a boy, ‘make things a little better because you were there.’”
There are also a few sentence fragments and small typos, like “no where,” that suggest this text has sadly not been copyedited.
Social Media
Kasich has all the social media accounts we expect from a candidate by now: YouTube, Instagram, Twitter, and Facebook. He has run ads on Snapchat’s “Live Story” feed. And he even Periscoped his presidential announcement.
Though he’s no digital prophet, the man is clearly comfortable handling most accounts. Lately they’ve been taken over by his staff and filled with boring behind-the-scenes snippets from his campaign preparation. But if you dig deeper, it’s clear that Kasich is engaged with current events and willing to add a little personality to his online presence. Take, for instance, the adorably dorky Instagram of him with Linkin Park’s lead singer, Chester Charles Bennington, along with the caption, “Chester from #LinkinPark gave my girls a call before their show. I get to be the cool dad tonight.”
Or this savvy #ThrowbackThursday post that reveals him to be a bit of a babe in his younger years.
Rating
Three out of five American flag squiggles. If only Kasich’s online self was more like his human self.
See the whole RevURL series here.
Follow Alyssa Bereznak on Twitter or email her here.
