After announcing her intentions to run as an MP last week, this week’s broadcast explored the next step of the campaign narrative: conducting promotional activities.
This involved a quick meet-the-people session and guerrilla marketing tactics such as sticking posters, stickers and a surprise in public spaces.
Accompanied by an entourage of assistants and photographers, MPs (Members of Parliament) usually go from table to table at hawker centres and briefly shake hands with citizens during election season. I wanted to parody this common MP behaviour in this week’s broadcast. I shook hands with some citizens and handed out flyers, encouraging them to vote for me in the supposed upcoming election.
I realise there are some limitations which we as social broadcasters have to be mindful of. For example, it was difficult to hold the camera, flyers and stickers at the same time, while speaking and shaking hands with citizens. We also need to manage camera angles and the light direction. It’s a bit unfortunate that subtle interactions such as my handshakes with the citizens were not caught within the frame.
Furthermore, in line with Roxy’s position as a millennial politician, this week’s concept also experimented with guerrilla marketing and unconventional campaign promotion. In parallel with the Facebook live broadcasts, I experimented with other forms of internet culture and social networking by posting additional bits of (satirical) content like GIFs during the week. Not only does this help sustain interest in the project, it also helps flesh out Roxy as a character and show snippets of her unique and unorthodox campaign activities.
(This is a still of the GIF as I couldn’t embed it. Here’s the full post) The banner shows MP Chan Chun Sing who came to speak at NTU this week.
(This is a still of the GIF. Here’s the full post)
Another common MP behaviour is dancing at grassroots events. The dancing style is rather reserved, and MPs appear to be dancing out of obligation.
Surrounding the theme of unconventional marketing, this week’s broadcast was done as 2 mini-broadcasts.
Here’s part 1:
Beautifying public spaces with my face and first impromptu meet-the-ppl session. You're welcome NTU 🙂
Posted by Sng Yi Xian Issa on Thursday, 6 April 2017
And here’s part 2:
Guerrilla marketing Part 2. #vote4roxy
Posted by Sng Yi Xian Issa on Thursday, 6 April 2017
In the first video, I like the sincerity of Roxy, who is a truly believable and likable politician that seems to erase any distinction between you and her. I feel as though she is truly your alter ego and that in fact Roxy is a surrogate for your own ambitions. At least that’s my impression! She has a very winning personality and you want to believe her and support her initiatives.
In the second video, again as we discussed in class, it is very surprising to see the lack of response from people. I think that the issue is you are playing for the camera (online audience?) rather than to those around you. Which is fine, if in fact you are playing with the idea that politicians often play to the camera, they often use local audiences as a stage for reaching a larger media audience. At least that is how it works in American politics. It may seem as though they are speaking to a local group, but in fact, they are really thinking about the television audience. Is that the case with Roxy? Is that way she doesn’t pay attention to those around her? Something to consider.