One of the issues that kept coming up during the Launch event last week in Brussels was how do we make Europe Sexy? By Europe I mean the European Union. This is something that I have spent much time thinking about since getting back to Ireland.
I cannot think of any country in the world where politics is considered sexy except in the USA where Obama reinvigorated politics, but how can that work in a disconnected Europe?
The use of social media is one way, while checking out various EU related sites I came across Graham Watson’s, the leader of the ALDE, twitter account. When I came across the account today he had one follower, then I tweeted (put on twitter for non-twitters reading this) that he had an account and he now has four followers (one of them being me).
The fact that he has a twitter account and it is advertised on his campaign website and still he only had one follower leads me to wonder why is no one following him? Simple because EU politics is not sexy and/or not many people are interested in his campaign . Social media can make some inroads but obviously it will only be used by those interested in the EU, no EU campaign will lead to the mass followings that Obama got using Social Media, as its is simple not sexy enough.
So how do you make the EU sexy? Well Young Fine Gael (the youth wing of Fine Gael which is part of the EPP) in Ireland have tried making the EU sexy in campaigns on the Treaty of Nice and the Treaty of Lisbon with posters and campaigns.
In the campaign for the Nice Treaty they had this poster
YFG poster for the Nice Treaty Referendum in Ireland
This poster did create some interest in the EU and the Nice treaty but not substantial. So failed to make it sexy. So they tried against the Lisbon Treaty referendum. This time Young Fine Gael created the following posters
YFG Poster for Lisbon Treaty
YFG Poster for Lisbon Treaty
These posters created a stir on the bloggersphere with many copies and mock-ups being made. But did these make the EU sexy? No. These were only seen by people involved with politics or read political blogs, they did not make people go looking for information on Lisbon or vote yes.
So how can europe be sexy? Simple, in its current form, it cant be. The EU has no tangible effect on its citizens. Most people see EU legislation being passed by national legislatures and being blamed by Governments when people don’t like a policy.
When Governments will stop this “policy washing” as it is termed, we may see a change is people’s attitude toward the EU and see it as something that effects their life in a positive way and that they can influence can exert by voting the elections for the European Parliament.
Will we see this any time soon? I doubt, Europe will remain un-sexy for some time to come.
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The EU has plenty of tangible results on its citizens. But national media doesn’t portray them in a friendly, brief, user-friendly form. Perhaps the European Union doesn’t transmit them as such, perhaps there’s a gap between media and information services in Bxl and the ones in national member states. In Romania at least there has been a great deal of national legislation changing and having a tangible result on day to day live, but progress hasn’t been portrayed as EU-generated progress all the time. The European Union institutions remain opaque not because they are useless, but because they don’t know how to communicate what they are doing.
Corina I think the EU is see as having more effect in the newer member states, unlike the older member states which seam to be used to it. Especially my generation which has grown up with the EU we do not see the changes brought about by the EU as it has always there for us, while for those in new member states like Romania, it is new, you can see the changes.
But you are right as well with how the institutions communicate with the citizens, then maybe it will become “sexy”
Graham Watson now has 6 followers
Why does he have 2 twitter accounts? @grahamwatsonmep and @grahamwatson
I think it is quite a different thing to be sexy or sexist.
Daniel, I do not think the posters were supposed to be sexist, but then again a debate around that would have deflected the attention from the Lisbon treaty. The posters were supposed to ignite debate on the Treaty, on which it was a FAIL
But how about the main question - WHY should we make Europe sexy?
Nowadays it seems that a word “sexy” is becoming some kind of a fashion word… Last week my boss didn’t like the title of our planned discussion (about the regional development) and asked to make the title “more sexy”… I didn’t dare to answer that maybe not everything should become sexy.
And maybe also Europe shouldn’t?
Anita you are right, “sexy” has become a fashion word, but what I mean by it in this post is interesting, current and important to more people then it is now. So maybe Europe should be sexy?
i think this kind of posters, used in the Irish referendum campaign, show that pro-EU (not necessarily pro-Europeans) politicians are in a major crisis of ideas when it comes to promoting their point. if this kind of commercial advertising, with only a symbolic and superficial relation to what the EU actually means, is the best thing they came up with, it’s not surprising that the NO camp won
it’s true the sex sales, but we will never convince people that the EU is important if this is the message we give them.
congrats for bring it up, stephen!
Part of the problem with a consumer culture is that everybody demands instant gratification. If it isn’t immediately rewarding or stimulating, its immediately dissed as boring or unsexy. Some things need hard work to understand, and anyone who thinks that making key decisions about Governing Europe should be as easy as enjoying a couple of snappy posters or reading a couple of sensationalist newspaper stories is selling themselves, and Europe, short. We’ve got to stop seeing politics as a commodity which has to be sold and start seeing it as a process which has to be worked at by everybody. If you feel that Europe needs reforming - it is your responsibility to do some of the work in figuring out how things could be done better. - we ARE the people we’ve been waiting for.
Europe should be sexy. and i think it does a great job to make it happen by organizing this kind of competitions and inviting bloggers, young people and different kind of activists to brussels - feeding them, letting to get to know knew people, party and in the end create something in the name of EU.
pretty sexy. and mostly because of this sexy offer there gathered so many interesting people.
@George thanks!
@Frank though you are right but politics has to be sold at election time and referendum time in some countries. But your talk on reform is correct!
@Marta yes, oh god yes!
Just a note about the fact that you’ve been tagged in a review on thinkaboutitsomemore.blogspot.com.
We think you’re leading hands down after day 1 based on the number of comments and your tactic.
@John, I had a tactic?? This is just something I thought it was interesting! but yay!
How come the posters didn’t get the people of Ireland to vote “Yes” last year, then? Were they too explicit or not explicit enough? Or was it that people ignored them completely because they were so absurd? If the Lisbon Treaty is approved by the Irish in October, it won’t be because of the sex appeal of the Europe. It’ll be because of another elemental aspect of our nature — fear!
Eamonn, if I recall correctly from the conversations both with you and Stephen @ Brussels, then Irish are pretty religious people… And for such religious people these posters might seem rather offensive or inappropiate than encouraging to vote.
I am just thinking, but maybe one of the problems can also be that EU is kind of taken for granted and it gets some attention on a national level(s) only when such topics as ratification of treaties emerge. So, it is partly true what Corina says that national media do not really deal with “Brussels cousine”, but on the other hand topics covered by media are directly connected with higher national political agenda too - so it’s probably not enough to advertise EU only in moments of emergency but making people understand what is all about all the time. However, Brussels is by member states mostly considered to be “far away” and as such makes an impression that it doesn’t really affect people’s everyday life. It’s interesting how some times people that are not in the club (e.g. candidate states and the ones that signed SAA) know more about it than people inside.
I leave for a moment and I get a slew of comments right!
@Eamonn, that is one aspect definately in relation to Lisbon, but what about the European Elections? Fear is not going to make people vote in that election. Europe needs to be seen as important, tangible and making a positive difference.
@Anita while Ireland is religous, we arent prudes!
Ok we are, but not hugely!
@Tanja definetly the EU is taken for granted in the older Member States like Ireland, I have grown up with the EU so I do not see what the EU has done directly for me. And you are most definately correct about people in Candidate countries and countries with SAA’s knowing more. Which shows a failure in some way on educating people on the EU
Maybe he’s got the less popular account specifically for his presidential campaign?
And @Tanja; Dutch conservative paper NRC-next - popular amongst young people - has a section “Europe and the Netherlands”, giving continued coverage to the EU. A great idea, and highly necessary, I’d say. Still, the news in that section is often the most boring, due to the complexity and technicality of the issues. I fear that greater transparency and attending the democratic deficit will be the only remedies - but this is a long-term and hard process…
@ Simon NRC.next is conservative? Must have missed something being away from NL so long. I thought the NRC was mainly liberal.
@ Stephen Europe will become sexy when people can organise around it to effect something meaningful. I’m hoping we’ll get there soon.
@nanne but when? after Lisbon? after the next revision? thats the problem with Europe, its when will it happen
@nanne partly a matter of semantics; in English I tend to switch to American political dichotomy. I just meant to say NRC is less progressive than for example de Volkskrant. I agree that “liberal”, in the European sense of the word, would be a better classification.
Europe and European politics aren’t sexy. Neither are the politics of any country.
Obama is a person and so is Bush and Clinton. They embody US politics far more so than Congress or the US Senate ever did.
Europe is missing a leader that embodies what Europe stands for and a person who has the power to make real changes. The head of the commission has little real power in comparison with the European Council. And power there is balanced between states that represent themselves rather than the EU. How many non-political people even could name the leader of the European Parliament or the political groupings? In national politics too, no matter how democratic, people can name the leaders, prominent minister and, at a stretch, their local representatives.
The most effective EU leader of recent times has been Sarkozy and he only had 6 months in the role. In the past, if there were hard decisions to make, the leaders of French and Germany could get together and push it or kill it. In a much larger EU, they can’t act with the same influence.
The solution isn’t a good PR campaign, but the way in which the EU operates and the leadership provided.
I recall that sometimes fringe parties have celebrities, beauty queens and astronauts/kozmonauts on their party lists, but usually it is the mainstream parties with such decently looking, mature candidates that get the job of governing. The Irish ‘no’ campaign did not seem to be very sexy to me but it was also highly effective. I really find the posters you bring up discouraging to vote.
@Joe thats my point PR Campaigns cant make europe sexy and no body can emulate Obama or Clinton in Europe as it is so disparate. You are right that Sarkozy came close but what you say basically comes back to the Kissinger Quote “Who do I call if I want to call Europe?”, Maybe if Lisbon is passed that will change with the permament president of the European Council, that person may be able to embody Europe?
@Daniel thats my point, the posters were a FAIL in getting people to vote. You are right about the celebs, but it used by all parties to some degree here in Ireland, not just fring parties, but do they increase the vote is the question?
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Ok, so Ireland finally give Brussels the heads up and the yes they are so desperate for. Does that mean its now time for us here in the UK to perhaps begin to contemplate the chance that maybe, just maybe we should be looking at the plans on the table once more and reconsidering our place in Europe? It poses and interesting debate, one which I am sure will have many people hot under the collar. Have a look and read of some of my thoughts on the Future of the Euro Zone, the UK’s position, and what the EU should mean for each of us.
http://wp.me/pyq3l-47
Hows it Going, You might want to know this specific blog post is not showing up properly on my Motorola Razr. Anyway, I’m now viewing this blog on my notebook, Thanks