Campaigns and Democracy: Parallelisms Between Our Brand Is Crisis (2015) and the Philippine experience

An offshoot of the documentary bearing the same name, Our Brand Is Crisis (2015) follows the story of an American campaign strategist Jane Bodine being recruited by the losing Bolivian presidential candidate, Castillo. Despite falling behind the polls, Bodine agreed to join the campaign for her to battle once again with his nemesis, Pat Candy, the strategist of the opposing candidate, Rivera. The movie reveals the cynical and (some) unethical strategies and tactics where there is only one bad thing—losing. In this paper, I will use the film as a basis to

1. define the concept of campaigns and its use of political communication channels,
2. list and describe different campaign components present in the film, and
3. draw parallelisms in the Philippine context by providing examples based on the election campaign experiences in the country.

In the film context, a campaign can be understood as the utilization of all channels available to achieve a specific objective given a specific amount of time. The film features an election campaign, where political candidates vie for votes. Since votes are limited, the team should strategize and use all means possible to gain the most votes. Unlike other communication interventions that only use a specific medium, campaigns are multi-faceted that utilize different channels and resources such as mass media, interpersonal relationships, organizational linkages, community-based activities, and other activities possible. The film has concretized that campaigns require feedback mechanisms such as poll surveys, focus group discussions, and perception analyzers to ensure that the strategies implemented are effective and working. 

Messaging

The messaging of a campaign will serve as the vision of its strategies; hence, messaging should be strategically crafted. In the movie, the team's first messaging before Bodine came is to paint Castillo as an approachable and people's person. These are the exact opposite of what Castillo truly is—arrogant, elitist, self-centered. Filipino strategist Yoly Villanueva-Ong in Hofilena's (2006) 'How to Win An Elections: Lessons from the Experts' said that a politician could not hide behind a persona different from their own. This resonates with Bodine's strategy to stick with Castillo's true personality. 

Sticking with Castillo's personality is the better move due to the low perception rating of people to his campaign advertisements. To favor Castillo's personality, Bodine comes up with a new branding strategy to center the country's current crisis and that Castillo, a seasoned politician, can avert this problem. True enough, the messaging was effective as evidenced by the level of acceptance in the campaign sorties. The use of crisis as the branding strategy is effective since it will give Castillo the advantage to woo voters looking for someone experienced to bring stability. However, this particular branding is dangerous and has unethical implications because it borders on fear-mongering—spreading exaggerated issues to manipulate the public. 

This same strategy was used during the 2016 Duterte campaign, where the team fronts drugs as a menacing problem and that Duterte is the man who can solve it in a short time. Four years have passed, but no significant progress has been made except for the thousands of dead bodies of small-peddlers while drug lords are enjoying the protection of the president himself. Parallel with Castillo, Duterte is depicted as a strong leader, but it turns out, his words are nothing but empty promises.

Managing physical appearance

In the first part of the film, Bodine's first thing in the opposing candidate, Rivera, was his hair. This particular scenario fortified Hofilena (2006) claimed that most campaign strategists say that "having a good public image is half the battle won." Hofilena (2006) stated that physical appearance is important since it captures people's first impression. In the film, Bodine kept on reminding Castillo to fold the sleeves of his polo. The particular style fits the campaign's message, which is being a strong leader ready to avert the country's crisis. The candidate's clothing is rolled-up sleeves which alludes to the idiom "rolling up the sleeves," which can convey an "always ready-to-work" message. 

Similarly, to match the makamasa message of Duterte during the 2016 elections, his team chose to make him wear the checkered polos and maong pants. This clothing choice dramatically resonates with the people since it is a type of clothing present in ordinary people and a direct contrast to the traditional image. 

Community events and campaign sorties

The traditional way of campaigning is done through campaign sorties and community visits. In the film, this has been the most visible campaign strategy employed by both parties. The community events enabled Castillo to visit diverse communities and discuss his platforms. In a particular scene where Castillo's bus was blocked by a group of protesters seeking a referendum, Castillo was able to talk with them and promised to grant their request once elected as president. This particular move secured the votes of that particular community. 

Moreover, Castillo also visited factories, schools, and communities to do the traditional campaigning, which includes dialogues, speeches, and in Rivera's case, singing. Since campaign days are limited, the campaign team, as shown in the film, should do the geographical mapping to determine strategic locations where most voters are present or usually referred to as vote-rich areas.

Use of political advertisements and attack ads

Political TV advertisements are the fastest way to reach a large number of people. Advertisements are used to communicate the candidate's message in just a few seconds. In the film, the team used TV ads for Castillo. However, it does not sit well with the public since it is perceived as ingenuine by the people during the focus groups. 

Castillo's ads were not helping him in the campaign and still trailing behind the polls, hence Bodine suggested going negative. Going negative means to produce attack ads that will taint the image of the opposing candidate. However, the team, especially the Bolivian counterparts of Bodine, refused the idea since it will not sit well with the Bolivians. Being the brilliant strategist that she is, Bodine fabricated black propaganda against Castillo and blamed it on the opposition, giving Castillo the reason to fight back and go negative. The attack ads helped the team to narrow the ratings of Rivera in the polls. Doing attack ads does not necessarily translate into votes for your team. However, as evident in the film, it dispersed the votes and further divided the opposition, thereby increasing Castillo's rating margin. 

In the Philippines, the first attack TV ad was seen in 2016, when former senator Trillanes sponsored a video attacking Duterte by showing a video of kids questioning the old man's credibility and personality. This ad greatly affected Duterte's fragile ego and was the cause of PH media giant ABS-CBN denial of a franchise as orchestrated by the president's lackeys. 

Babies

In the Philippines, almost all campaigns have a specific messaging geared towards depicting the candidate as family-oriented. With the same element, the film also depicts family use when Rivera's twins were born.

As odd it may seem, the timing for a politician's wife's pregnancy can be orchestrated in time for elections. In the film, Rivera exploited his children by using them as props for his campaign. This particular strategy sits well with the country that has a collective value of being family-oriented. Likewise, in the Philippines, the same strategy was also present during the 2019 elections with Mar Roxas. In February 2019, at the height of senatorial campaigns, the children of Roxas with Korina Sanchez were born, and they are also twins. Unfortunately, like Rivera, Roxas suffered the same fate, and for the third time, lost the elections.

This strategy is worth noticing because this specific strategy has its historical background and became a significant part of the USA's political campaigns (Porter, 2019). On the same note, Philippine politicians are also notorious for kissing, but in our president's case, he is internationally known for kissing women publicly and dramatically kissing pavements.

Dirty tactics

Black propaganda or dirty tactics are always present in every election campaign. In the film, both Bodine and Candy utilized black propaganda to favor their candidates. For Candy, he deployed a man to attack Castillo thereby revealing his attitude to the public by punching a guy's face. Candy also used flyers to accuse Castillo of being part of a cult. On the other hand, Bodine released negative ads attacking Rivera and accusing him of pocketing public money. She even sabotaged Rivera's campaign sortie by pretending to be part of the Rivera team and commanding the train to move forward hence disrupting Rivera's campaign. She also linked Rivera with Hitler's Nazi officers. Bodine also tasked Eduardo, a campaign volunteer, to take videos of Rivera's activities and speeches to track their strategies. These are tactics, although unethical, significantly contributed to the campaign of both parties.

These dirty tactics are not new in Philippine politics; Hofilena (2006) recognized negative campaigning and special operations during election season. The dirty tactics such as black propaganda, use of undercover spies, and worst, violence. Dirty tactics know no laws; hence the campaign team should be prepared to battle against these.

GETTING OFF THE CAROUSEL

In the film's ending, Bodine joined the resistance once she realized that she helped in the election of a nefarious individual. This particular scenario alludes to two things; refocusing a communicator's role in a democracy and the reimagination of democracy beyond elections.

The film depicts our country's realities; a false democracy where power-hungry dynasties, hegemonic imperial countries trample the promises of freedom, human rights, and rule of law. Bolivia and the Philippines share the same experience where the electoral system is designed to give people a false sense of choice. However, in reality, the same people are elected, and no concrete opportunities are given to people from the grassroots. In a system designed like this, we cannot expect politicians, even the honest ones, to ultimately prevail over the corrupt system (David, 2006).  

In the film, Bodine found her true success and fulfillment in life, not by winning elections but rather by getting off the continuous carousel of soulless campaigning for crooked politicians. This is a strong message and call for us, communicators, to work hard to establish strong, durable, and people-centered institutions that create a culture of care. A culture where democracy is not just about people electing leaders. A participatory and empowering culture where rights, welfare, and opportunities are secured and inclusive for all. 

In Bolivia and the Philippines, emancipation can only be achieved if people will realize that neither Castillo nor Rivera, that neither Marcos nor Aquino nor Duterte will bring the progress we all desire. Emancipation can only be achieved through people's solidarity beyond elections and is grounded on the belief that democracy is a continuous struggle of fighting and resisting oppression—that we are not truly free until our countrymen are free from the shackles of poverty, inequality, and violence.

Like an enthusiastic Eduardo who once believed that politicians alone can bring positive reforms. 

Like a stupefied Bodine who was once a slave of money and people in power. 

Like them, it is now time to get off the carousel and join the resistance.

Helpful readings:

• David, R. (2006). Nation, Self, and Citizenship. Anvil Publishing: Pasig City.
• Hofilena, C. (2006). How to Win an Election: Lessons from the experts. Ateneo de Manila University:  Quezon City.
• Porter, J. (2019). How candidates kissing babies became a major part of Us political campaigns. 
• Business Insider. https://www.businessinsider.com/political-candidates-kissing-babies-a-brief-history-2019-11.