Election PR: Do Laughs win Votes?

The old maxim of ‘scare ‘em to go to the election polls’ may be soon replaced by ‘send them there laughing.’ The recent spate of anti-Harper viral online attack ads may reveal the new way to motivate and engage young voters, traditionally a politically apathetic group who (if recent stats are believable) are disconnected from traditional media.

The viral power of a YouTube video to communicate a message is not in doubt (think Old Spice). But just how effective videos are in engaging young people in the political process is the multimillion vote question.

In a series of videos released over the past few days, Stephen Harper and the conservative cause have been given an online drubbing. The attack site shitharperdid.ca along with its associated web videos are still new (less than a few days old), but have already reached viral proportions. More than a million hits crashed the site when new videos were unveiled Wednesday.

And they’re not the only ones hitting the PM hard on the social media front.

A slew of other attack ads produced by the under 30-set include a set of videos that feature different women “breaking up with Stephen Harper.”

Toronto group Colour of Poverty – Colour of Change hammered the Conservatives with a parody Michael Jackson video criticizing the PM and his underlings for their political rhetoric focusing on “capturing the ethnic vote.”

These new attack videos compliment an earlier video released by the Liberal party of Canada titled “Hey Stephen Harper, stop creeping me on Facebook,” which currently has more than 160,000 views.

What’s interesting is that these videos show a parallel engagement mechanism that, if effective in activating young voters, could change political PR. Quick and dirty, inexpensive videos on YouTube to sway young voters, traditional TV attack ads to convince older voters. How soon will huge TV ad buys – like the series of “Michael Ignatieff is just visiting” ads – be completely replaced with public messages, video or otherwise, posted only on the Internet?

Given the more casual nature of the social web, do laughs guarantee votes? The uniting characteristic of the viral attack videos is humour. Contrast this with traditional attack ads on TV or radio that feature angry voices proclaiming the opponent’s shortcomings and why a choice of them will lead to disaster for the country (and the voter’s life). So which is more effective in convincing people to vote – fear or humour?

This is a key differentiator between online and offline messaging, and one political communicators will watch in the coming weeks. In the meantime, expect more of these ads to launch and battle for space in young people’s Facebook news feeds.