Reykjavík Grapevine - 11.11.2016, Síða 6

Inner Workings
The Reykjavík Grapevine
Issue 17 — 2016
6
As we look back on this campaign
season, there were moments of gold,
moments of embarrassment, and
moments that just made you want to
break a chair against a wall. Here, we
have assembled some of the very best
and the very worst that Iceland's par-
liamentary campaign season had to
offer.
Left-Greens Are Too Sexy
For Social Media
Campaign videos in Iceland, like in
much of the rest of the world, are of-
ten boring affairs: pod-people smiles,
vague platitudes, and completely
staged "candid" footage. The Left-
Greens took a decidedly different tack
in inviting artist Ragnar Kjartansson
to help with their campaign videos. In
one such video, a naked woman wear-
ing an oversized horse mask smears
blood on a wall, screams, and pulls
on her nipples before Ragnar appears,
telling voters that the Left-Greens
support the arts. The video was a huge
success, albeit a short-lived one: Face-
book blocked any attempt to share it,
and YouTube pulled it for "nudity and
sexual content." Nonetheless, the video
worked, in the sense that everyone was
talking about it—even more so after it
disappeared.
The Independence Party:
"Fuck School, Get Paid"
Every election, public broadcasting
service RÚV do a thing called Krak-
kaRÚV ("Kids' RÚV"), wherein candi-
dates are asked to speak directly to Ice-
land's children on a variety of subjects.
Independence Party secretary Áslaug
Arna Sigurbjörnsdóttir took the role
of speaking on the subject of educa-
tion, and what her party will do for
kids where this subject is concerned.
Amazingly, she said that the Indepen-
dence Party was seeking to shorten the
amount of time kids spend in school,
which she considers important be-
cause, as she put it, "The world is filled
with people and money and whatnot."
A pretty rich contention to make, con-
sidering that the state of public educa-
tion in Iceland has been in dire need
of improvement for some time now.
Unsurprisingly, the video sparked out-
rage across social media, and was one
of the worst missteps the party made
this season.
The Progressive Party:
Holy Crap What Were
They Thinking?
The Progressives are known for being
a bit clumsy and corny in their cam-
paign videos, but in this case, they re-
ally crossed a line with a lot of people.
In an animated video, the Progressives
depict themselves as healthy, spry
players on a football team. All well
and good, except that they depict the
Left-Greens, the Social Democrats and
the Pirates as being in poor physical
health, and outright disabled. The vid-
eo drew considerable criticism from
actually disabled people in Iceland and
their friends, and is likely one of the ug-
liest campaign videos we've ever seen.
Not a good look on you, Progressives.
The Pirate Party:
Pls Vote 4 Us Kthxbye
The Pirates enjoy a considerable
amount of support from young peo-
ple, but it can be difficult to get young
people to the polls. Vísir reports that
everyone between the ages of 18 and 30
whose phone number isn't on a no-call
list received text messages from the
Pirates, encouraging the recipient to
vote for them. The Pirates were com-
pletely open about this, and apologised
if anyone was bothered by the texts,
but it nonetheless drew the ire of an In-
dependence Party voter, who contend-
ed the practice is illegal. Whatever the
legal ramifications of the strategy, it's
undeniably effective, and a damn sight
better than an automated robocall or
having campaign literature stuffed in
your mailbox that you're not going to
read before you toss it in recycling.
The Debates: Please Make
The Pain Stop
There is quite possibly nothing more
painful than watching debates be-
tween political candidates. Everyone
is convinced they are in the right, ev-
eryone wants to have the floor, and no
one wants to concede an inch. People
talk over one another, some people
speak in mistruths if not outright lies.
Most frustrating of all is the emotional
roller coaster of watching your favorite
candidate doing well or doing poorly,
and the endless speculation over who
won or lost the debate. They are admit-
tedly effective as soundbite factories,
but they still never convey more in-
formation about individual platforms
than simply visiting the websites of
the respective parties would. Debates
are an opportunity to experience a
taste of the grandstanding and show-
boating that we can expect once these
people are actually in Parliament. It
isn't information; it's entertainment.
We could do without them.
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GPV.IS/UTL15
Words
PAUL
FONTAINE
Illustration
LÓA
HJÁLMTÝS-
DÓTTIR
OPINION
The Best &
Worst Of
Campaign
2016
A Look Back
As our readers are
well aware, tourism
has become one of
the major pillars of
Iceland’s economy. Arion Bank re-
alises this as well, and recently is-
sued an economic forecast with the
ominous title, “Don’t Fly To Close
To The Sun.” This report points out
that tourism has indeed strength-
ened the króna, but that this does
not necessarily bode well for the
Icelandic economy in the long run.
In fact, the analysts contend that
“the króna has become stronger
than the economy can deal with in
the long term,” and caution that the
time has come to maybe “turn on
the warning light.” Which is pretty
reminiscent of what we were hear-
ing in 2007. Braces yourselves, ev-
eryone.
Back to the always fun topic of
elections and polling: Dunkin’ Do-
nuts launched a novel campaign in
the days before the elections: they
marked identically flavored do-
nuts with the insignia of the dif-
ferent political parties running for
Parliament, and used their sales
figures to release a kind of elec-
tion-by-donuts set of results. The
actual outcome was so close to the
real election results that it proved
more accurate than the various sci-
entific polls conducted in the coun-
try. Take note, Nate Silver; we Ice-
landers have discovered the perfect
polling methodology.
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