Jessica
Flags of different colors were waving on the streets. Parades of
motorcycles and trucks jammed the traffic, making unbearable noises with
firecrackers and those inspiring songs. If you think it』s one of the
celebrations in a traditional festival, you are completely wrong. It』s
a common scene during the election season in Taiwan.
The recent tendency is
that election campaigns are becoming more and more like entertainment
shows. Some candidates shave their heads bald or dress in fancy
costumes to arouse public attention. And it』s quite common to find them
announcing sarcastic criticisms or making slanderous remarks against one
another. What』s more, they constantly show up on many different kinds
of occasions to have their names being familiarized by the public—they
attend TV talk shows, celebrities』 funerals, and even rescue work after
earthquakes. Their extensive exposure through the media and
advertisement aimed to put them under the spotlight so as to attract and
motivate their voters.
With so much packaging,
advertising, and promoting, it is little wonder that elections often
bring serious damages to our environment and cause huge wastes to our
national financial situation. Most of the flags and advertisements are
turned into nothing but junk after the elections, and most of them are
not recyclable. The more propaganda we have, the much junk we』ll have
to throw into the garbage afterwards. Besides, the advertisement sheets
are made from trees that have been cut down, thus resulting in the loss
of ancient forests. This vicious circle destroys the balance of our
environment while its danger remains concealed by those advertisement
printers or publishers. Another thing is that the propaganda trucks can
easily create noise pollution. The speeches and music that came through
the loudspeakers are usually at such high decibel that they can even
make us deaf and drive us mad. There are still other cases where
candidates borrow money from the underground loan-sharks to make shows
but end up in bankruptcy. Also, part of the tax we pay is transformed
into 「compensation money」 for campaign spending, which could have been
better spent on other more constructive activities than simply building
a perfect image for the candidates.
The
influence of the show-like campaign goes further. As major election
campaigns are looking more and more like entertainment shows, and
packaging and image-building become the core of campaigns, other minor
elections began to adopt the same model. Several years ago, no one
really cared about the precinct chief election; but now the candidates
of precinct chiefs are also playing those fancy tricks to attract their
voters, which sometimes amount to fewer than 10 families. It has even
been reported that elementary school students who participate in the
election of model students or class leaders are also setting up an
election headquarter as well. A new occupation has been created because
of this recent tendency—image consultants. They package one』s
appearance and focus everyone』s attention on one』s good aspects because
people care only about the surface. Appearance has now taken over
substance.
Whether this trend will result in more superficial social values is
worthy of our consideration; even though the new occupation of image
consultants may give a hand to the sluggish economy of Taiwan as well as
to the advertising industry.