The $350k "genderful" blob urging Oregonians to vote

Fagan's office spent $350,000 to "pre-bunk" election misinformation in 2022 using "Blobby," an animated blob who this week became Oregon's official voting mascot.

Blobby, the “genderful” blob adopted this week as the mascot of the Elections Division of the Oregon Secretary of State, is the product of a $350,000 contract during Shemia Fagan’s stint as Oregon Secretary of State.

The Oregon Secretary of State’s Elections Division this week introduced a new mascot named Blobby, created as part of a $350,000 contract inked in 2022, when Shemia Fagan, since resigned, was Secretary of State.

Portland design firm Happylucky designed Blobby and a series of public service announcements titled “Voting in Oregon Feels Good.” Happylucky’s website describes Blobby as “a genderful and inclusive animated character” committed to helping Oregon combat election misinformation.

The website Gender Wiki defines “genderful” as “a term for acknowledging that one’s full spectrum of self is unique to the individual; being full of gender, as opposed to genderless.”

On Blobby’s Twitter account, Blobby and several other unnamed, voting-enthused blobs canoe Crater Lake, hike, and toss a mail-in ballot, precariously, from a wheel chair into a mailbox while extolling the unbridled joy of voting in Oregon.

A fellow blob, perhaps a friend of Blobby, prepares to vote. (Source: Blobby’s Twitter account)

The Secretary of State’s office, in an October 2022 press release announcing the information campaign, describes its “aim to ‘pre-bunk’ false election information by proactively reaching voters with accurate information from an official, trusted source.”

In the release, Fagan is quoted as saying, “I want the characters in these videos to be to Oregon elections what Smokey the Bear is to wildfire prevention.”

According to the release, the $350,000 price tag for Blobby and the associated campaign came from one-time funding allocated by the legislature in 2022.

The public service announcements ran in advance of the 2022 election in English, Spanish, Russian, Mandarin, Cantonese, Vietnamese and Somali.

Nearly a year later, the Elections Division announced Blobby as its new mascot.

According to a brief Google search, Oregon is the first and only state in the nation with a genderful blob encouraging its residents to vote.