I think MoveOn tried to trick me today, just a little. They sent an email message with a whole new style of donate button that looked a lot like the Obama campaign messages. In fact, the look was Obama-ish enough that for a few seconds I didn’t realize I was reading MoveOn email.
I’ve been on MoveOn’s list for a long time. They’ve used a red donate button on a white background for a long time now. It is distinctive enough that I’ve come to recognize it. Here is a recent example (sent yesterday).
Now here are a couple example s of recent Obama messages from the past month. They all share this blue background and red button (except for a few messages from Obama himself which have a simple red “Donate” button centered under the whole text of the message).
Then today I got this from MoveOn. Looks familar, no?
The Obama campaign has done such a good job of fundraising, I wonder if others are trying to ride his coattails already. I’m a supporter of MoveOn and I don’t think there is anything particularly wrong with their creating this implied closer relationship, but it is interesting to me. I also had not realized how familiar I’d become with the Obama “look,” familiar enough that this switch caught my attention. That’s a sign of strong branding and design on the part of the Obama campaign.