Political Supermodels

Our recent class discussion on the concept of ‘Political Supermodels’ made me think…
During the time of the last Danish election, my mother was working for one of the smaller parties. Seeing it from the inside, she made it clear to me exactly how much thought goes into every single detail of an election campaign, and exactly how much effort is put into it. On TV, the campaign videos start popping up, and you see posters with smiling politicians in every streetlight. This is a remarkable feature of the political campaigns. These posters are designed so that the face of the person is clearly the essence of the poster, accompanied only by the name of the party he or she represents. There is no mention of the opinions or viewpoints of the politician or the party, only this link between a face and a party. In this way, the focus is on the people rather than the politics.
The strategy that the parties use is essentially the same. They want to make themselves look good. They have different ways of portraying a favorable image, but they are all trying to do it. If those who have the best campaign = those who get the greatest number of votes, this is a vicious circle, since the larger parties have a lot more money available to them to run a campaign than the smaller ones.
I am not trying to say that Danish people are stupid, ignorant or easily manipulated. In fact, I have a number of friends who have been politically active for years despite their young age. Still, I think that a lot of voters have only a very superficial comprehension for politics, and that they are likely to be influenced by a strong campaign rather than develop an in-depth understanding of the party’s political standpoint. For example, I have spoken to people who voted for a party because they liked the color of their campaign poster or because they thought a party-member was attractive.
A few years back, a very conservative Danish political party (Danish People’s Party) used the lyrics of a song to promote themselves. This does not initially seem like a problem, but it caused a great uproar at the time. Loosely translated, the song is called ‘Give Me Back Denmark’ and is written by the artist Natasja. It deals with how Denmark is moving away from what it once were – how the free expression and spaces to unfold are getting lost with a specific reference to the tearing down of the ‘Youth House’. In general, it criticizes a conservative and discriminating mindset and encourages people to bring back the free spirit of an ‘old Denmark’. The Danish people’s party took this hit song that basically criticizes their policies and used it in their favor. They used the campaigning slogan ‘Give us back Denmark’. Many found this outrageous and rude as the Denmark that the Danish People’s Party is asking to get back is a conservative ‘monocultural’ one with no room for diversity. In effect, the exact opposite of the Denmark Natasja longed for. Plagiarism or not, the popularity of the song made the slogan memorable and tongue-in-cheek enough to ensure the party a large chunk of the votes. Whether this was because of their promotional trick or their actual policies, I am not to say.
Since I am eighteen years old I am allowed to vote, and although I would love to say that I am immune to the political campaign, I think that I, as everyone else, will be biased by the parties’ strong self-promotion.