A POLITICAL campaign can make or break a candidate. This was emphasized in a Political Science (PolSci) talk held on March 12 at the Leong Hall.
Political campaigning is an essential part of the election process, said Project Head Socorro Marie Buensalido. “It informs people not just about the candidates, but it highlights other elements about the politicians and their platforms…the votes complete the totality of the political [campaign which] is why campaigns are important.”
Invited speakers were campaign experts Malou Tiquia, founder and General Manager of Publicus Asia, and Jose Consunji, Managing Director of Neuron Advertising Agency.
Communication and persuasion
Consunji compared doing campaign advertisements for political candidates to selling products. He also explained what a political campaign was and what makes a successful one.
“The voter is a thinking being, so in creating ads, you have to have a driving idea—just one message that is translated in different forms of media to facilitate communication,” he said.
Tiquia, meanwhile, talked about electoral campaigning as an art of persuasion. “In political campaigning, there is a need to communicate a solid message that is based from surveys…to persuade undecided people to side with [the candidate].”
She added that this persuasion also involves manipulation.
“To some extent this is also an art of manipulation because although campaigns aim to show a candidate’s platforms there is also the idea of propaganda and marketing to it,” she said.
But Tiquia also added that beyond having a campaign strategy, it is more important to have a political strategy. “The backbone of winning a campaign is a strong organization, which can translate these advertisements into something concrete for the people.”
Concerned Ateneans
During the open forum, students raised several questions about the political advertisements proliferating in different media forms such social media sites.
To answer the query about the effect of online campaigns, Tiquia said that although the trend of using online social sites is becoming more rampant, it is still considered superficial and annoying at times.
“I think the use of [text messaging] would have flied more, but the problem with that is that messages should somehow be personalized,” said Tiquia. “As for the use of social sites, I think it generates a buzz but, this strategy is still in the infant stage.”
Consunji explained that the effect of the use of social sites for campaigning depends a lot on the target audience’s access to the internet. “Those who have easy access to the internet are the A, B, and upper C classes, but most of the voters come from the D and E classes so I don’t think it will be as effective for now.”
Consunji also talked about negative advertisements. “Negative ads are used because there are many undecided voters who can be swayed, but [the ad’s] effectiveness depends on how it is used. It can make or break a candidate.”
Tiquia even added that there were agencies that have departments that research on the candidates’ rivals during campaign period.
A student also raised a question on the effectiveness of ground war and air war.
Ground war is a campaign strategy where candidates campaign at the local level, while air war is a strategy that involves the airing of advertisements in different media forms, such as television and radio.
“The ideal strategy would be investing 70% of resources on air war and 30% on ground war,” Tiquia said. She added, however, that ground war was still important to Filipinos.
“The people still want to see and interact with their candidates personally,” said Tiquia. “There will be more rejection to air war because of its high expenditure, so in the next cycle we would probably see a more grassroots approach.”
A good start
Former Sanggunian president Omi Castañar (AB DS’ 09) said that although he was familiar with the campaign methods, he thinks that this talk is useful for the students. “It’s good that students get to know what happens in a campaign—that it is not just simply creating ads but that there is a concrete way of executing it.”
Vimischa Marga Balazo said that the talk was different from other election-related talks. “It focused on the campaign and not simply [on] the elections. It was nice to know what happens behind the scenes,” said.
Buensalido said that despite the lack of people who attended, the lecture was very interesting and enlightening. “I just hoped more students were able to listen because knowing how campaign strategies work is a good way to discern candidates and be a responsible voter.”
Prior to the talk, the organizers also held an exhibit from March 10 to 12 at the MVP Basement. The exhibit featured the print advertisements of the candidates and a wall where students can write or draw their thoughts.
