Election campaigns without bloated politicians faces

Bavaria is having state elections. I would estimate the election campaign budget for all parties to be probably as high as McCain’s last month’s heart-medication bill.  So usually what you see is small billboards alongside the road depicting the usually unfavorably grinning visage of some politician you probably haven’t heard of. And if you have heard of him, you wonder what dental plan the poor guy has.

Now, the liberal party FDP took a different route. Aparently, a word can say more than a thousand pictures here. The campaign converts boring political issues into tangible concepts, using a fresh and irreverent tonality, in this case against wiretapping and government civil liberties infringements. In this poster, the poster says: “The CSU (conservatives) have everything under control. Including your hard drive!”

Finally a political campaign that is interesting and fresh to see.

Source: Werben & Verkaufen

Thanks, Valentin.

Wikipedia Whitewashing

Following the US elections isn’t hard. It’s in your face. Apart from traditional mass media that neverendingly report on what people liken the “first real democracy’s” election process, you can read thousands of opinions on blogs, communities and of course even twitter with up to date information at a inundating level that’s mind-boggling and more than a normal person could handle. But that’s not the only thing that changed.

In a time of the oh-so-mighty “prosumer” (the consumer who also produces content), image building can take some weird turns, as is the case around the GOP’s nomination of Sara Palin as Vice-President of the McCain campaign. Aparently, there is some hubbub about whitewashing her’s and McCains Wikipedia entry. Quotes Boing Boing:

She was called “a politician of eye-popping integrity” and sections on her participation in a beauty pageant and her alleged use of influence to get her former brother-in-law fired were diminished.

Political process, just like advertising still seems to be all about perception and changing that perception. Now there are more tools to do so. However, you have to know what you’re doing, otherwise people will use those tools against you more effectively than you as a brand, or in this case a political candidate ever will be able to.