Chennai: For 19-year-old S. Amudha, surfing YouTube for random videos is a pastime. Of late, she seems to not enjoy doing that. “In every third video that I click, I am forced to watch a DMK campaign advertisement. I watched the whole ad once or twice but when it started repeating so much, it was annoying me,” she said.
Just like this first time voter, there have been many others targeted by this aggressive digital campaigning strategy by the DMK. In just a 50-second video, the party’s Kolathur constituency candidate M.K. Stalin takes the viewer through the high points of their poll manifesto and culminates with Chief Minister candidate M. Karunanidhi seeking the voter to cast their ballot papers for Udayasooryan (poll symbol).
DMK spokesperson T.K.S. Ilangovan told DC that the strategy was to reach out to supporters of the nonagenarian Karunanidhi. “Thalaivar Kalaignar has over three lakh followers. It is only a closed-group propaganda, whatever we try to do on social media. But we expect that supporters take it to the people outside the surface,” he said.
There are two separate teams of “sympathisers” who take care of digital media advertising for both Stalin and Karunanidhi, according to Ilangovan. “Our aim is to reach at least five per cent of the young voter base through these tactics. It will make a huge difference,” Ilangovan remarked.
However, freelance cinematographer R. Vignesh felt that the DMK was overdoing it. “You know it is a bit much when Stalin pops up in my Guitar tuning app and asks me to vote for DMK,” he said.
“It is a bit like the banners. All parties overdo things with banners, which has now been banned thankfully to the model code of conduct. But this advertising online is similar to hundreds of banners forced down the Internet user’s throat,” he added.
Yet, when asked whether this campaigning would put him off from voting for the DMK, Vignesh said that he was still unsure of whom to vote for, which fell in line with what other young voters had to say as well.
Social media expert and blogger Kiruba Shankar while conceding that excessive advertising can be put off viewers, he begged to differ on whether this strategy will backfire on the DMK.
“No one likes being shoved with adverts, especially online. However, they tend to be effective in reiterating the poll promises and helps in better recall. I feel this aggressive advertising may end up benefitting the DMK rather than backfiring,” he said.
