Political campaigning and culture

Thursday, May 4, 2017
by Cameron Shelley

A piece by Mark Scott in the New York Times states that efforts by the American alt-right to support Marine Le Pen's campaign for President of France have fallen flat.  Tactics that worked in the American campaign for Donald Trump do not "translate."

One tactic has been to spread memes, that is, posters featuring a picture, often of Emmanuel Macron, Ms. Le Pen's rival, and a clever caption.  Such efforts have encountered two problems.

First, alt-right symbols from American politics do not have the same meaning in France:

Yet international supporters repeatedly used Pepe the Frog, a cartoon tied to anti-Semitism and racism that has become an unofficial mascot of the alt-right movement. Many did so without realizing the amphibian is often used as a slur against French people.

To wit:

Remote video URL

Second, many of the attacks have been expressed in English, such as the hashtag MFGA—Make France Great Again.  Many French voters do not speak much English and those who do may not be impressed by campaigning conducted in a foreign language.

In our STV 202 class, we discuss the role of culture in good design.  Sometimes, designing well means adapting to local culture and expectations (though not always).  Perhaps this campaign is one such example.