SO!
We’re still around…yes the gag is now about 5 years old, no one likes Obama anymore, Battlestar Galactica hasn’t been on since ’09, and haters in the Tea Party talked smack about this site. (Note to Tea Party People: bite my shiny metal ass, you morons! It’s ADAMA not OBAMA or are you too stupid to read?)
That’s not important. What is, is the first episode of Portlandia which has an epic homage to our FAVORITE show and has none other than Mr. Eddie James Olmos in a cameo. Watch it NOW:
Although Battlestar Galactica has been off the air for a year, and the presidential election we were spoofing is long over, the Adama for President site will remain up until the end of 2010 as a legacy site where you can still buy a few items from the Zazzle store, if you’re so inclined.
After fixing a bit of MT code that had gone astray after a change at the hosting, I figured I’d do a recap for anyone who accidentally found this site while doing a search for God Knows What. Anyway, here’s a recap of the fakest campaign in the 12 Colonies in 2008, and some of the fun we had taking a joke at the bar 3 years ago and watching it go places we never expected:
-The first boost for the non-campaign was this mention in io9.com, where we were unaware the footage would go online and figured WTF, let’s see how long the joke will last.
-Thanks to help from our friends at Galactica SitRep, we managed to send a care package to the BSG set in Vancouver, where they were filming the last episodes of the final season in 2008. That was rather funny.
-Enough people bought the shirts to pay for my way to Comic Con, where we gave out stickers and free posters to fans waiting for the BSG panel.
-Even more awesome, one of our readers climbed 13,000 feet to the summit of a mountain, and carried one of our shirts all the way to the top for this photo. Wow! Talk about dedication to the fake cause!
-The coolest moments were when “Admiral Adama” himself made a few mentions of the joke at cons, and was eventually spotted wearing one of the shirts. None of us ever got a chance to meet Eddie in person, but it was rather cool to see him wearing one of our little Zazzle shirts in public. I mean, really?
-And finally, I was floored when this showed up on the LA times blog. Someone emailed me that day and noted it (as I don’t read most of the LAT to begin with) and again, I was floored. I mean, this whole thing was a domain name + a Zazzle store, plus a few care packages to the cast and writers and one mention at io9.com, and suddenly, people bought these things? Really?
The whole project was a lot of fun, and I made a little side money off of Zazzle (although not as much as you might think since their base cost is high, so the markup was very low.) Still, the total amount of money I spent was maybe $100 bucks total, and the entertainment value of seeing this thing go crazy was kind of fun.
That said, I have no idea what the next gag site might be. Caprica doesn’t seem to be the mine of fandom that BSG was, and besides, politics is lame now, on all sides and no one is in the mood for satirical gags. If I could come up with some cool Jack Bauer site or whatever, that’d be cool.
Word from one of our supporters is that it’s Katee Sackhoff’s birthday today, and the fine folks at Tcritic are taking suggestions for Best Battlestar Based Tee.
Why not post something about your Adama-related clothes and stickers over there? And happy birthday, Starbuck!
Tonight, the Series Finale for Battlestar Galactica will end the show. And all I can say is paraphrase what Adama said at the Battle of New Caprica: “It’s been an honor knowing all of you…”
Seriously. What started as a bar conversation in late 2007 between myself and my brother about a pun evolved into an amazing viral site that was the perfect combo of scifi, faux politics, and fun. Thanks to the kind words of io9.com we launched into the blogosphere, and thanks to the amazing, awesome awesome ProgGrrll and Logan of of Galactica Sitrep, we had an amazing win sending our stuff to the set as they filmed the final episodes of the series. I made enough money to go to Comic-Con, and this whole “grassroots” movement culiminated in the ultimate win of seeing star Eddie James Olmos with our shirt at a con.
We even rocked Facebook with our Facebook Application which has an AMAZING 65% acceptance rate and has spread worldwide.
The whole experience was a lot of fun, and none of it would have happened without your support. Thank you for a fun year, and enjoy tonight’s finale. For fun, why not download a PDF of the poster and post it one last time, and maybe take a picture and post it to Flickr or Facebook…I’m sure Adm. Adama would approve!
The good folks at Zazzle.com have just announced a new discount code in honor of Inauguration Day – $4.40 off any shirt in the Zazzle store! All you need to do is go to our Zazzle store, pick out any shirt for sale (you’ll find both N Judah and Adama for President items there), and enter the code 440SHIRTSALE for your discount. The discount starts today and ends at 11:59pm on January 20th (PDT).
As always, awesome fan news can be found at Galactica Sitrep and SciFi Channel’s website. You can also watch the webisodes on Hulu.com or download them in high definition from iTunes!
Hey Gang!
There’s only 2 weeks left until the return of Battlestar Galactica, where we’ll find out what happens to Adm. Adama and the gang. If you’re not already watching the webisodes at SciFi Channel’s site, go check it out.
Also, Zazzle.com has announced a 20% discount code that will be in effect from January 1-6th of this year. Go to the our Zazzle store and use the code ZTSHIRTS2009 and you’ll be ready to frak party in style this month!
Well the “real” election is over…but the Adama for President site will continue since we still have Season 4.5 of Battlestar Galactica in 2009. We will also keep our Facebook Application and Group running as well. And of course, you can still buy an Adama For President Shirt or sticker in the store. They make great Christmas gifts for your BSG-fan friends and family as well!
If you have any ideas or suggestions for what you’d like to see, especially after Season 4.5 gets started, feel free to post a comment here!
UPDATE: Zazzle has a 10% off code from November 17th-20th. Simply use the code ZAZZLEPAYPAL when you check out and you get 10% off anything you buy!
The awesome folks at Galactica SitRep posted a link to this article at CBC.ca by Richard Handler. In it, he talks about the qualities that make Adm. Adama a good guy, and what Canadian and US politicians could learn from him.
Hat tip to the folks at SitRep!
PS: There’s only a few weeks left in the campaign! You can show your support with something from our store, join our Facebook group and install our Facebook Application for Adama. Thanks and let’s keep the momentum going until the show returns in 2009!
Campaign season is winding down, but we’ve got one last trick up our sleeves – a Facebook application for Adama ’08! All you have to do is go to application’s page on Facebook and you can install a badge on your profile that will show your support for Adama for President, allow others to install the application, and link directly to our Facebook Group, the site, and our store!
If you’re on Facebook, why not install one today on your profile? Or better yet, tell your friends about it with the app’s “tell a friend” feature? It’s quick, it’s easy and it’s fun!
The other day I posted a comment at the LA Times’ Webscout blog on an entry they’d written about the battle of political shirts at Zazzle.com between Obama, McCain, Palin, et al. Naturally I suggested another candidate that might be of interest.
Today, they linked to the site, complete with a replica of our banner! Needless to say this was a surprise. If you’re a new visitor the site, please buy something, look around, and read some of the archives this little campaign has generated since we came up with the idea a while back! Thanks for your support!