BN win is actually a triumph for advertising and marketing firms

The BN win today is a victory for advertising and marketing firms which coordinated the PR blitz. The intensive advertising campaign - from the billboards to the full-page ads to the glossy pamphlets - bore all the marks of professional marketing techniques.

The BN tag-line "Excellence, Glory, Distinction", for instance, is uncannily similar to the tag-line for a major international cigarette brand, which used "Style, Quality, Excellence" (Gaya, mutu, keunggulan). In a sense, the BN's campaign has been all about style/form over substance and the marketing of a brand image, while shunting aside the issues that matter.

This is probably the handiwork of the professional advertising/marketing firms. Singapore's Straits Times today reports: "For this campaign, the BN roped in at least three different advertising agencies. Its television commercials were produced by Leo Burnett, while two other agencies were responsible for print and poster campaigns."

The ads consistently hammered home the theme that only the BN could ensure "stability" and "development".

So, not surprisingly, tried and tested commercial methods were used to tug at voter's emotions to urge them to "buy" (vote for) the product (BN). In the end, the firms regarded voters as gullible "consumers" whose emotions could be manipulated by constant bombardment of positive images so that they ended up desiring the product (BN).

One wonders how much this advertising campaign - including the campaign material and media adverts - has cost the BN and whether it has exceeded permissible spending limits. Would our allegedly independent Election Commission investigate this - or will it turn a blind eye as usual?

Blog visitor Earth said s/he found these observations "amusing" while Adam said it sounded like "sour grapes."

Says blog visitor Luxen: "If I'm not mistaken, most of the airtime, billboards and full-page advertisements were 'donated' by the media owners so BN did not break the campaign limit rules.

"Most of the Billboards were used temporarily only (wrap around). For the airtime, most were in house promos rolled by the TV stations."

Another blog visitor Bizarro responds to Luxen: "Come on. And who owns these media? *cough*"