‘Dumb ways to vote’ adds a fun musical twist to the sad state of Philippine elections

by Ardelle Costuna

(YouTube)

 

A sure sign election season is approaching is when allegations of corruption involving hopeful candidates are all over the news.

Thanks to all the mudslinging, we’re even witnessing a rebirth of some of the insults we used in playgrounds as kids.

So how else can we prepare ourselves for the election related festivities that are coming our way?

Right after the 2013 Midterm Elections, the Commission on Elections (COMELEC) reminded people to register for the next elections. Meanwhile, non-government organizations are always trying their best to remind people to vote with their minds, and not their wallets. It’s a message that sounds good on paper, but is hard to really get across, especially when voters are faced with envelopes of cold cash during election day. Despite the long odds, one group is using technology and social media to push new ways to reach out to the electorate.

The Philippine office of Friedrich Naumann Foundation for Freedom (FNF) recently released a campaign called “Dumb Ways to Vote,” an infomercial that reminds people to vote wisely in the coming elections. FNF is a Germany-based NGO that promotes political freedom in different parts of the world.

 

 

The video is a parody of “Dumb Ways to Die” a multi-award winning public service announcement made by Australia’s Metro Trains two years ago.

“‘Dumb Ways To Vote’ encourages people to vote intelligently, or at least to think twice before they vote,” FNF Philippines’ country director Jules Maaten said in a press release.

“Being famous as an actor or a sportsman does not automatically qualify you for public office. At the end of the day, it is the voters who decide whether their elected officials have integrity, or not.”

The video depicts our country’s political landscape and the typical qualifications of those who run for office (“Find a general who’s been a coup plotter / Or a movie star who’s even hotter”).

The catchy song enumerates the dumb, dumber, and dumbest ways of voting, such as “See with whom you most agree / Then ask them for a fee / And if they don’t pay up, don’t vote for them.” 

The video featured a lot of familiar situations and faces, but FNF claims that “Any resemblance to real persons, living or dead, is purely coincidental.”

Watch the Tagalog version here.