Choose the new face of Mount Rushmore (why?)

March 11, 2013 10:52 AM

Who or what is behind Rushmorevote.com?

I've been seeing billboards around Cincinnati, Ohio asking people to vote for a new face to be added to Mount Rushmore. Obviously it's some sort of viral campaign or joke, but I can't find any further information about it. They've got a website, a Facebook page, and a Twitter. When you answer the survey, they then ask several questions about your demographics and how you found it.

posted by Gordafarin to media & arts (8 answers total)

whois rushmorevote.com

It's pretty much a moot point, since last I'd heard there was no more suitable stone.
posted by cjorgensen at 10:55 AM on March 11

Another whois check for rushmorevote.com, which shows that one Roger Singh of ARA Computer Services LLC in Ashburn, Virginia owns at least 16 other domains. DomainTools.com's Whois hides the full URLs of those search results, but Google will tell you, and none look too interconnected.

Searching for "Roger Singh" rushmore gets you nothing.
posted by filthy light thief at 11:01 AM on March 11

Well, Roger/ARA is connected to a few Outdoor Advertising Ass'n of America sites: OAaa.org and OOhMediaplanAwards.org, which forwards you to an awards-related page for OAAA. There is also a dated web design company site, DamnWebs.com (Best Viewed at 800 X 600 in IE5+, Requires Flash Player 6 Plug-in), and there are also a few dead links, including ObieAwards.org [404 not found] and KelsoRisk.com [DefaultHomepage placeholder].
posted by filthy light thief at 11:09 AM on March 11

It's pretty much a moot point, since last I'd heard there was no more suitable stone.

The site in question gives you the option to vote for George W. Bush or Barack Obama. I doubt they care about how suitable the stone is, it's an ad functionality verification site.

If this is really a site run by a billboard company, I can see the billboards and the Rushmorevote.com site as the real-world equivalence of banner ads, attempting to identify the demographic who bother to check a random website and click through silly surveys. Once ARA has that information, they're able to better sell their billboards, pointing to the survey forms filled out.

In short, my vote is for marketing verification, to bolster billboard sales, though it also makes me think of Angelyne, the billboard queen, who was seen all around LA because the owner of the billboards wanted something eye-catching to fill out the unrented spaces, and he got a cut of her advertising profits (when she was once making any profits).
posted by filthy light thief at 11:23 AM on March 11 [6 favorites]

Also, the sculptor Gutzon Borglum is dead. I hope he made a deal with South Dakota that no one else could mess with his project.
posted by Cranberry at 2:24 PM on March 11

I'm a bit surprised they offer a choice between Bush and Obama. There has always been low-level noise on the right about enshrining Reagan on Mt.Rushmore, but this is the first I've seen anything like this.
posted by Thorzdad at 6:01 AM on March 12

From a quick web search, it looks like the vote alone is getting people from out of the area looking: there are calls to vote on Democratic Underground and Conservative political forum, so it looks like the discussion is interesting enough to lure in out-of-towners. If so, I bet it's getting a lot of attention locally, or enough that people are going to the site after seeing the billboard.

If you're still interested, look for a number to call about getting your own sign on that billboard. Call and see if you can replace that particular billboard, and if the answer is a quick yes, it might just be a placeholder. Or you could call the number related to the domain, and ask them directly.
posted by filthy light thief at 8:19 PM on March 12

Filthy Light Thief is correct - this is a campaign from the Outdoor Advertising Association of America. The question about Mt. Rushmore is just intended to get people to answer the demographic questions.
posted by The Lamplighter at 9:02 AM on April 4