Campaign camp

Kids, consider this a friendly heads up. If you still watch TV on your TV, don’t be surprised to stumble upon ads of a different variety. There’s that unintentionally funny one with a Boomer senator maneuvering a pedicab while talking to someone about something, and another one with an older gentleman blabbing about his humble roots (and seafood) or whatever. There are apparently more of these weird commercials jostling for airtime along with Sharon Cuneta’s neverending stream of endorsements, not to mention Manny Pacquiao’s killer Vitwater punchlines. You know? Sorry, it was too easy. 

Anyway, the visual noise doesn’t stop there. The same people behind these attention-grabbers have even started hijacking billboard space once reserved for Dingdong Dantes and his nipples. So, do you smell something in the air? A dreamy blend, perhaps, of pawis, ill-advised PR and pure BS? If you answered yes, you are correct. You are also slightly — meaning totally — doomed! Pre-election season, in all its pointless Powerpoint presentational magnificence, is definitely upon us.

But those baffled by transparently manipulative attempts, those bored by politicians and their on-again, off-again romance with fooling the nation, should take heart. Concerned citizens have made it their mission to include individuals normally turned off by old-timey shenanigans: the youth.

Youth Vote

Aiming to create online and offline collaboration for voters’ education and increased voter registration, Youth Vote Philippines is an alliance of various organizations for 2010 — a pivotal year in local politics — and beyond. Among those taking part in this effort are Ayala Young Leaders, Student Council Alliance of the Philippines, WhyNotForum, Youth Alliance Philippines, and the Movement for Good Governance. Since it launched in September 2008, Youth Vote Philippines has traveled across the country to speak to different student organizations about making their voices heard.

Last week, a really, really colorful bus barreled down the streets of Metro Manila to persuade young Pinoys to go out and register for the 2010 polls. A brainchild of the Ayala Young Leaders Alliance, YouthVote Philippines and First-time Voters Network, the vehicle cannot turn into a fighting robot — damn — but, packed with idealistic volunteers, it does have the power to deliver its message to students and young professionals. With five months left before Oct. 31, the last day of registration, getting young voters to realize their clout is paramount. The youth vote — the number of first-timers in next year’s national elections, including me — hovers somewhere between two and five million.

Lolcat-Ization Of Politics

But back to campaign camp. The Internet, always a harbinger of trends to come, played a crucial role in Barack Obama’s popularity with young people and, from how it looked, his subsequent victory. From live-blogging every detail of the 2008 US presidential elections to creating memes out of key figures, the online generation signaled a radical new direction as far as the consumption of global politics was concerned. At the very least, the under-30s showed their awareness, and being informed is the first step of a collective hairpin turn towards progress.           

Since Philippine politics is not issue-based, it runs the risk of not being as intellectually satisfying as its American counterpart. In place of wit and sarcasm, the body’s natural defense against stupidity, Filipinos may have to resort to their signature camp – “a sensibility that revels in artifice, stylization, theatricalization, irony, playfulness, and exaggeration rather than content,” according to Susan Sontag – to get through the national elections. It seems that the Lolcat-ization of Pinoy politics has begun.