Election 2015: The moments that were immortalised on social media

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/election-2015-32591614

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Debate will continue about whether this was the UK's first 'social media election' but party leaders, candidates and even the electorate have certainly been online to campaign, comment or simply make a joke.

One recurring social media prop has been the use of images that aren't quite what they seem.

Key moments in the campaign have been immortalised with some very creative photoshopping, which frequently led to the birth of widely shared memes and hashtags and generally resulted in carefully staged campaign 'moments' not having the entirely desired effect...

The campaign kicked of with a slightly unusual celebrity endorsement of the Lib Dems by reality TV star Joey Essex, who told wide-eyed journalists he had thought the party was called the Liberal 'Democats' before meeting leader Nick Clegg who helpfully put him straight. The Lib Dems took it in good humour and took to photoshop themselves to join in the fun, briefly changing their website logo...

When Ed Miliband appeared next to a huge stone slab with his election promises engraved on it, it was open season for photoshoppers everywhere as social media lit up with Moses jokes and it quickly became known online as #EdStone.

Shadow Chancellor Ed Balls was roundly mocked online as the fourth anniversary of #EdBallsDay, the day that the internet marks his accidental tweeting of his own name, rolled around and he was photoshopped into all manner of inappropriate places.

Ed Miliband became an unlikely online pin up as the his face was photoshopped onto images of famous movie stars, musicians and footballers bodies and #milifandom was born, some taking it more seriously than others.

One by one as the major parties manifestos were launched they were mercilessly mocked online.

And then there was the dead pigeon incident... where an unfortunate pigeon fell victim to the Lib Dem campaign bus and Twitter reacted, well, as you might expect it to...

The Tories weren't safe from photoshop fiends either, as they (and all the parties) tried to convince us that they are inclusive and forward-thinking. We looked at the kind of political rebrands social media generously offered the main parties, the Tory tree getting more than one reworking.

As the campaign rumbled on David Cameron's newfound passion didn't go unnoticed as he started to appear at events mid-campaign with his sleeves rolled up, and for once it was the audio rather an the imagery that got a reworking. Remarking at one event that the campaign was making him feel 'pumped up', this clip from his speech which was quickly turned into a mash up with the Black-Eyed Peas song of a similar name.

There were however some stories that made headlines where no photoshopping or re-mastering was required...

The Green Party offered an alternative vision with an advert portraying the Conservative, Labour, Lib Dem and UKIP leaders as a slightly questionable boyband. On the other hand if teenage girls got onboard with #milifandom who knows what will win votes.

Staying on the musical theme #constituencysongs was an early Twitter hit, when tweeters took to the site to offer song titles reworked to contain constituencies, to the amusement of bored journalists everywhere.

Again no tweaking required, when an enthusiastic UKIP voter in Essex when asked his name by a journalist replied:

As a frightening number of error ridden leaflets appeared on people's doormats, they took to social media to share their horror, altering the images little further than an indignant biro-ringing of the offending error.

Yes, that's a stick with a wig on it. No, it hasn't been photoshopped. It's one of a number of unusual images that we were treated to, via social media, as we took a look at the weird world of hustings.

The unusual paring of Ed Miliband and Russell Brand appeared on our screens leading to... you guessed it, #milibrand as Ed appeared to 'rebrand' himself, adopting an estuary twang for the duration of the encounter.

You might not believe it but these pictures genuinely weren't photoshopped. Yep, they really were all wearing the same thing, while telling us earnestly how different they all were from the other guy. But as ever the truth will out (on social media).

And wait for it... The UKIP ringtone. You didn't think we'd forgotten that gem did you? No re-mastering required this treat is 100% original. You're welcome!

Written by Kerry Alexandra