Mexico City – Mexico’s elections campaign has lurched from the banal to the risque in its final week.
Leftist Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador loomed ubiquitous at his campaign rallies in the form of life-size cardboard cutouts of himself, while a cartoon drawing showing his smiling, cutesy, cowlick visage showed up everywhere, on bumper stickers, T-shirts, hats and scarves.
“Smile, we’re going to win,” and “Happiness is on the way,” have been among the catchier campaign slogans for Lopez Obrador, who is often accompanied at rallies by “Rayo de Esperanza,” or “Ray of Hope Man,” a masked fellow in a super-hero’s cape who is named after a phrase Lopez Obrador once used to describe himself.
Lopez Obrador also likes to compare himself to near-sacred Mexican heroes like former president Benito Juarez and revolutionary hero Emiliano Zapata, bringing their photos along to campaign rallies.
Other campaigns seemed desperate for publicity. With just days to go before Sunday’s vote, Roberto Madrazo of the old ruling party, the PRI, actually accepted a daytime television appearance on a comical cooking show run by two drag-queen “chefs” dubbed Tomato and Parsley, who joined him in making scatological jokes.
Felipe Calderon also tried to liven up his stodgy, conservative, family man image – he actually wore a cardigan sweater on one campaign ad – by hiring clowns and explosive confetti-machines at his rallies.
“Clapping Hand” clappers, campaign shopping bags, and even party-branded popcorn were among the giveaways at rallies.
Lopez Obrador won by far the largest support among wannabe professional wrestlers – the masked “lucha libre” stars depicted in the movie “Nacho Libre” – with appearances at his campaign rallies by a masked Ray of Hope Man, a term Lopez Obrador once used to describe himself.
Madrazo countered by hiring scantily clad dancers to appear at his rallies, often with his name written on the seats of their short-shorts.
This is Democracy? Of course it is, analysts say – while the campaigns have been criticized for attack ads and pandering, the propaganda deluge has been seen as Mexico’s once-stiff politics coming of age in the mass media era.
