Guardian
The president has a bigger problem than Monday’s Pew poll: Colin Horgan says Obama came out of last week’s debate with some seriously boring GIFs. Even though most of the ones Horgan saw made fun of Mitt Romney, “the lasting cultural images of him will at least feature the messages he set out to project,” he writes.
(OK, maybe not this one.)
His quotes were used. The words might appear in neon flashing lights or as satire, but there they are. His phrases were remembered, if only as part of a carnival Internet sideshow. By contrast, not only was Obama entirely less memorable, but the Internet considered him to have ultimately been completely silent. As far as the gifs are concerned, he might as well have said nothing at all.
Romney is, for whatever reason, proving more GIF-fable than the president. I can’t put my finger on it, but there’s something about his Bob Dobbs-like head that seems to inspire makers of GIFs. Dan Amira presents a GIF of a man giving the Republican candidate’s face a very thorough mopping. It’s mesmerizing.
Obama’s reserved public presentation just doesn’t lend itself well to animation, which incidentally may be the same reason you don’t see many GIFs of media news. To wit: Here’s one I made of New York Times employees walking out Tuesday:
Right? But move a member of the Romney-Ryan ticket into a media news moment, and now you’re GIFfing!
Related: The Guardian and Tumblr will ‘live-GIF’ first presidential debate | What journalists need to know about animated GIFs — really
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