All together now

Clean Ungdom
Originally uploaded by amsterboy.

"Why does this guy have gloves on?" We spent time in a café with a friend of mine on Friday going through election material. It took me time to realise that the Swedish Folk Party had photoshopped all the candidate pictures so that the body was black and white (see pic). I really do not understand the message. To me it looks like they have all put gloves on before they go and shake hands with the people. Not the wisest choice for a party struggling with an elitist image.

Well, not to slander only one party, I must say that I am not too convinced by the campaigns as a whole. My personal favourites are the slogans of the ruling Centre Party:
- A bit like you would vote yourself (how depoliticising can you be?)
- We're also born from the middle (and...)

The Coalition Party (Conservatives) has an ear campaign copied from the big world. They basically have opened cafés all over the country for listening. Reminds me a bit of the Segolene Royal campaign in France. The big thing is how much this listening actually influences the policies.

The Social Democrats have a campaign with a big red Us and a smaller blue Me or a big red bus and a smaller blue limousine. It is once again an example of the problems of the Social Democrats. Their campaign relies on putting the others down, not presenting any new visions.

The most amusing campaign from the Social Democrats is the advertisement for the young candidates. The slogan is Demand Better News.

Both actions rom the Social Democrats have logical failures - first of all the current government's (Centre-Social Democrats) policy to cut taxes went further than the Coalition Party ever strived for. It has gone for individuals rather than the services for us all. And I find it difficult to understand how the young Social Democrats can campaign for change when they have been the ruling party in the country for ages.

I heard an amusing anecdote from the Green campaign. One of the suggestions for a slogan from the ad agency had been Party for All of Us. This would have been very much in line with the Centre Party but a bit twisted from a party with support of less than 10 %.

All and all the election seem to be quite boring as most people expect that the current coalition will continue as the economy is in good swing and the Coalition Party has been more or less teethless.