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Intellectual Property Law

: Threat Level

'Obama Girl' Celebrates One-Year Anniversary

By Ryan Singel, Kevin Poulsen, Sarah Lai Stirland, Kim Zetter, and David Kravets

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It's been a year since Barely Political's "Obama Girl" character crashed the web. Since then, millions of people the world over have become familiar with the sashaying, hip-swaying Amber Lee Ettinger.

Barely Political's 'Obama Girl' character has inspired dozens of tribute videos in response
Credit: Barely Political

Even though Ettinger didn't vote in the primaries herself*, she's probably done more than her fair share in terms of bolstering the interest of the Maxim demographic, as Barely Political would release hilarious tongue-in-cheek shorts at strategic moments during the presidential primaries.

As the number of her appearances on television shows around the world and her appearance on Saturday Night Live indicate, viewers have just been captivated by the character, and a number of tributes from fans have poured in through YouTube. There are some hilarious riffs on the meme, with "Rosh Hashanah Girl," "Russian Obama Girl" and "Reagan Girl," just to name a few.

The original video in which Ettinger made her debut "I Got A Crush ... On Obama," has been viewed more then 8.7 million times. In contrast, the Obama campaign's most popular YouTube video "A More Perfect Union," his keystone speech on race and politics, has logged just over half that number at 4.6 million views.

Like the man she's campaigning for, Obama Girl now has competition in the form of McCain Girl, who let's just say, isn't quite as sexy when she's angry.

Obama Girl's success online demonstrates Barely Political's winning viral video formula -- the videos are short, funny, feature catchy tunes, and use hot people to exploit popular interest in a hot subject.

Below, for your enjoyment, is a Barely Political retrospective, and a few embeds of Obama Girl tributes.

I've also included Barely Political's new McCain girl video, which while wonderfully saucy, apparently bombed among the humorless audience at this week's Webby Awards in New York City.