How Obama turned a frown upside-down
Not many in the UK may be familiar with the phrase ‘Obamacare,’ but it’s simple to guess what the term refers to. Conceived by opponents to President Barrack Obama’s healthcare legislation, the term was intended as a reputation missile, dragging the proposed legislation down. In a surprisingly canny go, over Christmas, the supporters of the legislation started to use the term in AdWords. Suddenly, ‘Obamacare’ wasn’t that negative any more.
You might have already guessed that this isn’t about the American health care system at all, but rather about how a reputation management issue can be turned into a reputation management asset.
The situation has been commented on before in SEO daily news, but no-one seemed to realise how brilliant a strategy it was in terms of SEO. What happened was nothing less than reappropriation. The backers of Obama’s health care policy realised that the only way to get rid of the negative connotations of the term was to push them out in the search engines.
The tactic hasn’t completely worked, but it may do in time. If it does, the clever use of SEO will have helped to make a major change in US politics. Makes you reckon, doesn’t it?
The reappropriation of terms shouldn’t be SEO news, but very few businesses seem to use this tactic to get rid of terrible press. If you’re comfortable with the concept of keywords, it’s worth keeping this reputation management angle in mind. You can approach our experts at SEO.co.uk about how to work reputation management into your website optimisation plot.
