With only a bit more than a week to the German Bundestagswahl (federal elections), it’s time for a brief recap of the (supposedly viral) videos that have popped up over the last few weeks. Take this post as a starting point as it’s most certainly far from incomplete as of yet. Also, please take into consideration that very likely I saw more of these videos from one side of the political spectrum than the other.
The theme tying these videos together is basically: Every vote counts, so go vote, or you support some non-candidate or another.
Time permitting, I’ll be adding more videos as they’re coming in. Please let me know of others if you know them. Also, thanks to Thomas for a first collection. (I’m still thinking of putting all the US versions right next to them. Could be good fun.)
To watch the video, please go to www.deine-stimme-hat-die-wahl-entschieden.de, as the embeddable player is on auto play and I didn’t want to force you to watch it every time you visit the site. Customized by name. Plot: One person didn’t vote, thus a black/yellow (CDU/FDP) coalition wins the election with the result of fostering nuclear energy. Well-meaning, but rather cheap.
gehnichthin.de features German stars or VIPs who, like the American Don’t Vote video seem to suggest that they don’t vote. Enter the plot twist, i.e. they do. Despite my criticism here, this is pretty well done.
Whole video at www.nachrichten-tv24.de, it’s not embeddable. (Can be sent by email.) Plot: A fake news channel announces the suprising new chancellor Westerwelle (FDP), who one by one vote or rather, because one person didn’t vote. (Customized by name.) To be fair, it says “inspired by Obama and MoveOn”. Side note: Since the chancellor isn’t elected directly by the citizens in Germany but by majority vote in the parliament, this doesn’t really make sense. By IG Metall, a major union.
Whole video at www.zeig-stimme.de, it’s not embeddable (can be sent by email). Customized by photo upload. Plot: a news show featuring a massive mysterious campaign to get one citizen to vote. Produced by SPD.
Whole video at http://www.einslive.de/wahl09. Not embeddable, can be sent by email. The best in the bunch, at least the best-produced both in terms of “fake news credibility” and the customization features. Also, the speakers are all professional journalists. Plot: A new party (“G.A.G.A.”) rises out of nowhere and goes straight to the top of the polls. Their lead candidate is the recipient of the email, customized via photo and name. The reason for G.A.G.A.’s success is the overall lack of interest in the elections. Fun side note: The polls seen at one point with the new party attracting way more votes than the established parties look remarkably like the online polls if the Pirate Party is involved. Also, the Pirate Party and the fake party G.A.G.A. here sport orange as lead color. By WDR/EinsLive, a public TV channel.
Full disclosure: I’m an adviser to the online youth election campaign of SPD/Jusos. That’s a paid gig. This post expresses my personal views only. It’s not part of the election campaign, just my personal thoughts. I had an appearance in the “Zeig Stimme” video.
Edit: I had two more videos listed here but realized they didn’t fit the same scheme (“get folks to vote”) but were rather traditional campaigning viral videos. I’ll try to compile a list of those in a separate blog post, so keep the links coming. Thanks!
