A design inspired by Belgian Cartoonist Herge’s Tintin comics showing presidential candidate Joko Widodo on an impromptu visit to Papua. (Photo courtesy of Berakar Komunikasi)
Jakarta. It may be too soon to say that this year’s presidential election is an improvement on last time, but if there is anything different from five years ago, it is the level of enthusiasm among voters.
Soon after the candidates were officially announced, a surge of support and criticism for both parties appeared in conventional and social media. Some with more faith even volunteered to take part in the respective campaigns.
Yoga Adhitrisna, the founder and executive creative director of Jakarta-based advertising agency Berakar Komunikasi, said that compared to the previous presidential election, it is a lot easier now to find information about candidates. When a friend at Jokowi Mania — a group of volunteers who support Joko Widodo — asked him for help to create a fun campaign, Yoga volunteered himself.
“Basically, we want to see campaign materials that makes people smarter, more than just political jargon and a giant image of the politician,” he said. “So I wanted to give my take and do the campaign pro bono.”
He brainstormed with his colleagues and decided to take inspiration from Tintin comics by Belgian cartoonist Herge. Hari Prast, creative director at Berakar who created images for Jokowi Mania, said that he sees similar traits between Tintin and Joko. Tintin travels to many countries to cover stories and solve mysteries, whilst Joko is known for his impromptu visits (blusukan) to many parts of Indonesia.
“Even people who don’t know about Tintin will be able to relate, because this is how we see the future if Jokowi wins the election,” he said.
In these images, Joko is drawn wearing a pair of black trousers and a white shirt with both sleeves rolled to give the impression that he is ready to work. Joko’s adventures in these posters are inspired by his visits, to North Sumatra, Yogyakarta, Makassar and Papua. There is also a logo, Gulungkan Baju (roll your sleeves, which acts as both a reminder and encouragement for supporters.
Prabowo supporters dancing to Pharrell William’s song ‘Happy’ in a video uploaded on YouTube. (Photo courtesy of Sahabat Prabowo)
Hatriyo Wibowo, strategic planner at Berakar, said Joko has a few likable traits, such as honesty, not being associated with New Order tyranny, and a closeness with the people. But above all, Hatriyo and friends say his most valuable quality is that he has a good reputation as a leader who is willing to work.
“People who vote for Jokowi are people who are action-oriented,” he said.
In the last several weeks, Yoga, Hari and friends, as well as Jokowi Mania, have been spreading these cartoon images on the Internet. High-resolution images of these cartoons can be downloaded for free from kenapajokowi.com. Feedback is coming in quickly and Yoga hopes people will create merchandize based on these images. These days, Yoga feels people are more politically aware and people want to be seen supporting their favorite candidate. He is currently considering many requests to turn these posters into comics. Jokowi Mania is accepting other artwork that can be used to boost the popularity of their candidate.
Volunteers for Prabowo Subianto at Sahabat Prabowo (Prabowo’s friends) are also creating fun campaign materials. Sahabat Prabowo chairman Yudha Permana said they were involved in organizing the flash mob at the Hotel Indonesia Roundabout to support Joko Widodo when he was running for Jakarta governor last year.
“But we always knew that we wanted Prabowo Subianto as our president, and we only did that because Prabowo supported Jokowi as governor,” he said.
Yudha, who is a property consultant, said he has been spending his spare time to organize campaigns that will appeal to young voters. Many volunteers in Sahabat Prabowo are students who find it easy to come up with fun concepts. They recently released a video remake of “Happy” by Pharrell Williams, which features Prabowo’s young supporters dancing and
clapping to the hit song.
clapping to the hit song.
“We want to show the other side of Prabowo that is not widely exposed,” he said. (It should be noted that the video does not feature Prabowo in person.)
“People think that he is a very stern personality, a human rights violator, but if you meet him in person, he likes to joke around, he loves books and animals, he enjoys Star Wars and also Korean movies,” he said. “Most of all, he likes comedy and he loves watching stand up comedians.”
Yudha is currently producing more materials to be released in coming weeks.
To balance the online strategy, Yudha said Sabahat Prabowo also show up at many offline events, from Car-Free Day at Sudirman, Jakarta, to door-to-door campaigning. They also invite people to come to their headquarters for food.
Like Yoga, Yudha also feels that this election is different in terms of supporters.
He sees that many people are willing to get involved in campaigns, especially compared with five years ago.
“It’s definitely more colorful,” he said. “Both candidates have a strong base, so now it’s both a matter of branding and campaigning to help spread their vision and mission.”
By Lisa Siregar on 11:10 am Jun 15, 2014
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