StarKist Tuna is taking advantage of the political frenzy surrounding the election year with a new social campaign that seeks to find a running mate for its mascot, Charlie the Tuna.

As part of the campaign, Charlie the Tuna will be running for president, capitalizing on coverage of the presidential election. StarKist is running a contest to let customers pick Charlie?s running mate from a list of other brand mascots by voting on Facebook.

"While contests and sweepstakes have always been an extremely viable way to capture consumer attention and drive brand awareness, mobile has become our new ball field in the last several years and the engagement tools it offers are endless," said Janice Pollard, content and PR director at HelloWorld. "Coupled with the accessibility to social media that mobile offers, promotions like these should be in every marketer's playbook."

Inauguration day
The campaign season always brings with it a cavalcade of media coverage. The 24-hour news cycle can be exhausting, especially as it drags on into the last few months.

To combat this, StarKist is attempting to put a more lighthearted spin on what is usually a highly contested and divisive affair. Rather than choosing between Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump, customers will have the much less contentious candidate of Charlie the Tuna to vote for.

StarKist is pushing a large social media campaign to help find Charlie a running mate from other brand mascots. Once they have been narrowed down, users on social media can vote for which one they want Charlie to pick.

Each customer that votes will be entered to win four years - one election cycle?s worth - of free tuna from StarKist.

StarKist has not made any indication of which brands may be participating, but specific mascots will be announced in the coming weeks and months leading to the real-life election in November.

Voting will begin on Facebook on October 17 and run until October 27. Any vote cast within that time frame will automatically enter the user into the contest.

Brand elections
Capitalizing on something as precarious as the presidential election for marketing is a risky move. It seems that StarKist is shying away from any explicit politicization of its campaign, focusing on the trappings of election year politics and coverage instead.

StarKist is not the only brand looking to make use of election-themed marketing. General Mills also ran a campaign to let users elect their favorite cereal mascots to the presidency (see story).

Seven-Eleven is taking a more literal approach by sponsoring satirical publication The Onion?s election coverage in another example of presidential-election-focused branding (see story).

The move also represents a move towards inter-brand relations, as the running mate chosen will be a mascot for a brand other than StarKist. Whether other brands will be willing to let their mascots appear as vice-president to StarKist remains to be seen.

"The smart move is not aligning with a real candidate, which would alienate a large group of potential consumers, but instead creating a fun campaign around a timely theme," Ms. Pollard said.