After ditching their last lacklustre PR campaign, which was running in October (when there was the distinct possibility of a November election), the PN has now come up with a new media strategy. This time the tone is more optimistic, telling us what this administration has ostensibly achieved and what it plans to do, rather than the gloom and doom of what life will supposedly be like under Labour. The frequency of the ads in the print media suggest that the elections are close – because unless the Nationalists have an unlimited budget, it makes no sense to run the ads now if the elections are going to be in May, as Malta Today has predicted. The 8th March is the latest in a long series of dates I’ve heard bandied about.
Come on, Dr Gonzi, just announce the date and put us all out of our misery! This dithering about the date is starting to look like the man cannot make up his mind (not a very good quality to have in a Prime Minister). It also smacks of someone who wants to hang on to power for as long as possible before going to the polls – sorry, but all that talk about “what is good for the country” just doesn’t wash.
The new ads are only being run in the English language newspapers and, although written by a phantom pen, the style and turn of phrase are oddly familiar and remind me of someone (I’m sure it will come to me eventually). The first rule of PR is “who is your target audience?” and in this case, the ads are obviously directed at that sector of the middle-class that does not have staunch political allegiances. The whole campaign is aimed at those elusive floating voters who clinch an election. Those pesky voters that the PN feels are frustratingly not in their grasp – perhaps disgruntled Nationalists, completely p***ed-off Nationalists or utterly disgusted Nationalists, whose fingers are itching to vote this administration out of office.
This is not to say they will vote Labour (I sometimes think there is something ingrained in a Nationalist supporter, like a microchip, which physically prevents them from doing so), but they have no qualms in casting their vote for Alternattiva Demokratika knowing full well that enough votes in that direction is all that is needed. The beauty of this is that it is like getting two for the price of one: the PN will be booted out and a green Member of Parliament might just be elected.
Heck, if someone is really annoyed at the present government, he or she might just vote for the extreme right-wing Azzjoni Nazzjonali for the sheer fun of it.
This kind of scenario is probably the Nationalist Party’s bête noir; one which must make the Stamperija guys break out into a cold sweat, night after sleepless night.
The PN media campaign is also directed at the “I can’t really make up my mind” Labour voters who reluctantly turned their backs on their party last time because they agreed with EU membership. They would like to give Dr Alfred Sant a chance to run the country but the relentless anti-Sant messages constantly reminding them of his past decisions has left its impact.
Coming from working class roots, these voters are usually middle-class, and have wholly embraced the typical middle-class values of good education, white-collar jobs and upwardly mobile aspirations. They usually encourage their children to continue on to university and are ambitious about their lifestyle choices: from the area in which they wish to live, to their decorating taste to where they choose to go for their annual holiday. They’ve even done the previously unthinkable and started slipping in a smattering of English in their conversations, just to show that they can speak the language.
When it comes to politics, this kind of voter often struggles between their humble roots and their present way of life, sometimes sitting uncomfortably between the two realities of where they’ve come from and where they wish to go. Some might feel a desperate yearning to distance themselves from their blue collar background, preferring to be associated with “il-puliti” (the upper class) even though it’s common knowledge that the professional classes, with their private school backgrounds and contrived “posh” vowels (the real inner circle of the PN) just about tolerate them in order to keep their party in government.
When it comes to whom they would vote for to lead the country, these middle-class Labour voters want to attach themselves to a figurehead of whom they can be proud (which is why the PN’s ploy of depicting Labour leaders as figures of ridicule has always worked – after all, who wants to be identified with a “joke”?).
This, I feel, explains the vicious attacks directed against Dr Sant who, in the past has, unfortunately, given his opponents plenty of material to work with. It is interesting that we don’t see the same kind of nasty jibes directed against Dr Gonzi – in any another country his goody-goody, tal-Muzew image would provide satirists with reams of comic material.
Another branch of the PN media campaign reverts back to negative campaigning – the glum looking woman being told that her savings would have been seriously depleted had Labour had its way and gone for devaluation. This might have an effect, because it hits people where it hurts the most – their pocket. This is one area where social class does not come into it – because no matter where you fit within the social strata, no one wants to lose their hard-earned money.
Which is why this one was made into a huge billboard and is in Maltese.
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The Labour Party, meanwhile, has also ditched its previous campaign depicting a row of grinning Ministers who “are laughing at you” and gone back to basics. Now it’s a plain billboard that simply says “Bidu Gdid” (New Beginning), which at first glance is hardly noticeable as belonging to the MLP because they have steered away from their clichéd red background. Driving by, I only noticed it was a Labour Party billboard from the corner of my eye at the last minute.
My thoughts on seeing this was, “well, at least that’s different”. And maybe that was the point of the message after all.