The Bernie Sanders website: A review
Bernie Sanders at the news conference where he announced his candidacy for the 2016 Democratic presidential election. (Photo: Jonathan Ernst/Reuters)
Thursday afternoon, beneath a Hillary Clinton-shaped shadow, Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders declared his candidacy for the Democratic presidential nomination.
His was by far the most low-key of the four announcements we’ve seen thus far. The independent candidate made the statement in an informal press conference outside the Capitol, sans promotional YouTube videos or screaming fans.
The whole shebang was was short and sweet. And so is his campaign website. The one-page placeholder site promises an actual premiere “coming 5.26.15,” the same way a studio might promise of a superhero blockbuster. In the meantime, RevURL will make do with what it’s been given. Below, a brief analysis of the Democratic contender’s digital campaign hub.
Look and feel
Sanders’ site is soothing to look at in the way a blank wall is soothing to look at. The sheer lack of images, illustrations and blocks of text indicates a certain modesty about the guy. You get the sense that he lacks the ego to wax poetic about his legendary personal history or banner his homepage with images of himself looking overly self-important. It’s either that, or he is wholly unprepared to wage a competitive campaign.
Whatever the case, his color scheme is predictably patriotic: blue and white, accented with two bright red “contribute” and “join” buttons. He’s wisely opted for a humble sans-serif font, which fits with his message of being a man who represents the underrepresented middle class.
Logo
Sanders strikes a nice balance between more traditional text-centric logos and minimalist ones like Hillary’s. His logo depicts his first name in a round, stately font, riding a blue-and-red wave so gnarly that you can almost hear it saying “cowabunga, Democrats!” The “i” in Bernie also has a little hat in the form of a star, which is much more elegant than the gigantic United States of America floating over the “i” in Marco Rubio’s name.
Text
There is nothing of substance on Sanders’ website. Just a tagline that warns “a political revolution is coming.” This refers to the date of his formal announcement, which will be held at a rally in Burlington, Vermont.
The one small flourish of personality on the site is the grumpy progressive aside at the bottom of the page. Underneath an obligatory “Paid for by Bernie 2016” stamp, he adds “(Not the Billionaires).” Baller!
Social Media
Props to Sanders, who is 73 years old, for broadcasting his announcement over Periscope, let alone even knowing what it is.
Social media, as my colleague Meredith Shiner points out, is one of Sanders’ strong suits. He has a robust following on major platforms like Facebook and Twitter. And his team has even capitalized on the fact that today is #TBT (throwback Thursday), tweeting that hashtag alongside a link to a video of Sanders filibustering in 2010. Good times!
(Via Twitter)
Rating
Two and a half stars because this technically isn’t even a real website yet.
Follow Alyssa Bereznak on Twitter or email her here.
