Candidates aim for catchy campaigns

On Penn's campus, springtime is as synonymous with student government campaign advertisements as it is with flowers and mulch.

And with posters, e-mails and old-fashioned, door-to-door stumping shifting into high gear, issue-oriented advertising is largely overshadowed by rhymes, graphics and references to popular culture.

"There's a different calculus for these sorts of elections," said Paul Waldman, associate director of the Annenberg Public Policy Center.

"They're more akin to a city council election than, say, the sort of things that are more high profile -- national elections, congressional and presidential races," Waldman continued, noting that getting people to the polls and convincing them that issues relevant to them are at stake are central to successful local elections.

According to Waldman, once they work up the energy to vote, many will simply vote for the name they remember best.

"The thinking there is that if you can just get people to recognize your name, that'll be enough," he said. "Most of the messages we see are soon forgotten. If you have a catchy way to get people to remember your name, then it's going to be more likely to stick."

Hence, the graphics borrowed from Absolut Vodka ads and references to popular cartoon and TV characters and well-known politicians.

Indeed, a candidate's name can be turned to his advantage.

"Obviously, my name kind of rings," College sophomore Anthony Giuliano said.

Having maintained a poster campaign based around a color copy of Time magazine's cover announcing Rudy Giuliani as its 2001 Person of the Year -- with America's Mayor replaced by the Undergraduate Assembly candidate -- Giuliano said he's gotten a positive response to his ads.

"I've had a lot of people come up to me and tell me they've seen my ad," he said. "Eye-catchy, that's the whole thing. Connect your name to a famous group, a famous person, a famous saying."

Nominations and Elections Committee Chairwoman Rebecca Silberman said this year was much the same as any other.

"Postering I think is going very well. I think candidates have been doing a great job of getting their faces around campus," she said, noting that "we haven't received any complaints regarding mass e-mailing or abuse of listservs -- we... warned the candidates that mass e-mailings could actually backfire."

Cute signs and catchy wordplay, however, is not enough to win an election, Silberman maintained.

"Picking issues and targeting groups are more effective," she said. "Students... shouldn't underestimate the student body. They're only going to get online and vote if they see the UA and Class Boards are relevant to them."

Silberman added that targeting special interest organizations can win an election, as the group's leaders can endorse candidates and mobilize their membership.

The NEC itself plans to send e-mails to "to organizations, listing things the UA has done and how they affect different organizations," according to NEC Vice Chairwoman for Elections Tatiana Bautista.

Both Bautista and Silberman were enthusiastic about voter turnout so far. Though unwilling to release hard statistics, the NEC officers claim more students have summoned the energy to vote than they did at this point last year.

Some students, however, find the campaigns irrelevant at best.

"I'm absolutely not going to vote because I think it's pointless," College freshman Eden Lin said.

"I don't want to say that [the candidates] don't take it seriously because I think there are a fair number of people who do," countered Fran Walker, Penn's Director of Student Life. "I certainly think most of the candidates do. But since there isn't much of a forum available... none of the candidates are able to go into depth about things that they want to do."

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