The Corporate Invasion: DNC, RNC as Google Hang Out

Talking about the two major parties, and especially their conventions, being beholden to Wall Street and corporate interests, no organization has done a more brilliant job penetrating the inner sanctum — and doing it right out in the open — than Google. Exploiting the culture’s new media addiction, techno-love and the highest degree of hipness an organization can buy, the Google Media Center at both conventions has been attracting the love of politicians, journalists and the glitterati alike. It seems that was the case in Tampa, and it looks to be setting up again in Charlotte.

(Among my many questions, I’m wondering how Google’s tab for the DNC and RNC compare to their first quarter 2012 lobbying bill, which came to $5 million?)

The photo of Darryl Issa above is a really keeper, Issa being the House Oversight Committee Chair (and no boy scout when it comes to ethics). According to the Mashable caption, Issa is recording a Google+ message for U.S. military veterans. What a fascinating and complex picture, the way it involves the merger of politics and media, social media and technology, corporate self-interest and the American hot button of supporting the troops. From the standpoint of incestuous overlap, if you wouldn’t even know where to begin to sort it out, well…that’s by design.

Here’s a little bit of a tour:

Google’s own entrance at the DNC. Notice how the shipping containers are not only fun colors, but also connote international trade and real industrial goods, sort of a curious motif for the information economy.

The boring stuff where the company tips its hand a little, the imagery more like a trade show set up.

Pictures, because it’s all about “me” these days.

Free caffeination.

This is actually my favorite photo. The invasion as completely bipartisan. This was taken at the RNC, and I’d be very curious to know if the DNC version has the screen order reversed.

Google’s own version of the “I-pod,” I guess.

Google’s self-driving car at the DNC.

Chelsea Clinton chatting at the RNC ( via @TBOrickmayer -Tampa Bay Online)

Actor Jon Voight in the RNC Google Lounge (via Instagram – @j_cohan)

Whoops, not sure how that got in here. This is Best Coast rocking the Google Lounge at SXSW this year … ecause the culture invasion is just that broad based. (via Intagram – @estherjeandesigns)

(photos 1, 3-6: Alex Fitzpatrick for Mashable. Charlotte Observer photos: Sergio Tovar. photo 7: Fox Tampa Bay)