A single voting day was held in Russia. And in a year there will be new elections. And ten years ago and twenty years ago there were elections too … And there was PR in the elections, which I would like to talk about today. Well, to begin with, I will note that back in 1941, elections to the municipality of New York were held in the United States, and then for the first time they were won by the communist Peter V. Coccioni, an American of Italian descent. Prior to that, he had run in elections since 1936. Moreover, according to the RR system - “proportional representation”.
American strikers outside the White House, 1926.
It is believed that this is the most democratic electoral system (which is why it is not used anywhere - ha ha!), The essence of which is that your vote is distributed in proportion to the number of candidates, so it is not lost. That is, now you voted for the wrong one, and that's it - you lost your voice. And people vote “for sure”, and they also say that “they've counted everything for us”. And under the RR system - the first vote to one, the second to the other, the third to the last, to someone - 0. And the winner is the one who scored the maximum not by all counts, but by the number of candidates! But even according to this system, Koccioni did not win. It’s amazing to read what kind of fraud the American candidates were doing to win. But the "Committee for Fair Elections" was also very serious. That is, it was a real duel of who wins! Well, it was the voters who decided "who" in general, although in our country it is generally accepted that money and power decide and decide everything. Not all…
May Day demonstration of American communists in New York in 1935
Now, in our elections, passions do not rage as they did in the 90s. But then, even at the regional level in the election of the governor, there was so much! For example, a certain Kavlyagin was elected governor in Penza in the early 90s. He worked, worked, and as a result, Penza was in fourth place in the Russian Federation from the end! Among all the subjects of the federation and people were, of course, dissatisfied with this. In the next elections, he was opposed by V. Bochkarev, a strong business executive and … in order to overcome him, Kavlyagin decided on a funny PR move - to publish the newspaper "Club of Governors and Mayors" "for himself". If someone suggested it to him, then he was clearly not his friend. And if he invented it himself, then it is not surprising that then everything fell apart with us. The fact is that the newspaper was # 1 and colored !!! This is in the early 90s! Colored! Without specifying the place of publication at the end, the list of members of the editorial board … There was some address, but some clearly left. But there it was advertised very well. Moreover, members of the Federation Council Yegor Stroyev, the governor of Kamchatka (it borders on Penza only in a dream!), The president of Kalmykia, Dagestan - in a word, people are respected and live quite far away. But most of all I was finished off by the last page: the temple, our then high priest and his remark that they say that Kovlyagin is pleasing to the Lord! Who, who invented this? I threw away a lot of money and just screwed up, people are not stupid, or rather, not all! "- Why # 1?" - began to ask. Where is the output? Why did they start with Kovlyagin, why are the "praisers" so … distant? And much more!
But V. K. Bochkarev rented the newspaper "Novaya Gubernskaya Gazeta" - b / w, familiar in appearance, democratic, in which, by the way, they asked about this "color miracle" … And who won the elections? It is clear who! People did not forgive the incumbent governor for this stupid, colorful and loud newspaper!
And then the presidential elections began, and it just so happened that Yeltsin and Zyuganov went head to head in a race. In such cases, there is no better than PR means! But it is important to be able to use all of its tools! And one of the tools is research. So we decided to conduct a study in our city: what color, smell, taste, animal, plant, car this or that candidate is associated with. Against the background of the articles “vote, vote, vote”, “vote for communists, buy food for the last time”, an article about the tastes and preferences of voters would be striking, wouldn't it?
And so the results were collected and processed. And it turned out that most people associate Yeltsin with an oak, the color is black, a ZIL car, an animal is a bear … Zyuganov is a red color (blood), a corresponding smell, a plant is a poppy … General Swan is a white color, an animal is a swan … Zhirinovsky is brown, Yavlinsky - green, apple, apple tree, sour taste!
Here it is - the method of subconscious comparative associations how it works! What we see on TV, we write directly from the subconscious - a black suit (black dominates over all the others!), A solid tree, a truly Russian beast, and so on. What is associated with brown? That's it! And sour can really go to the presidency? And a bird, and even a white one … Only one respondent wrote that "Zyuganov smells of cat urine, and Zhirinovsky smells of leaded gasoline."
And it was these two phrases that appeared in the headline of an article about the elections in one of the popular Penza newspapers! What can you object to? Author's right! It was honestly written - one just wrote it! And all other indicators were described in text and given in graphs. But … who in the newspapers looks at the charts? How are they read? Across, right to left and in a hurry! But everyone remembers the title and repeats it! And it works best on the subconscious - short, catchy "thoughts" expressed by others! These are the basics of informational manipulation of people, the basics, one might say. But it works well. Even better than an administrative resource!
Then, in 2001, I met in St. Petersburg one head of a large PR agency, and he, in turn, told me how his company in one area brought a person to power. There was an anecdote at all. Three went to the polls - an independent but poor candidate, a communist and "from the brothers"! And they decided in the agency that the "poor" will win, they say, we can afford it. We came to him, told him everything, explained … And it turned out that he only had enough money to … send his wife on vacation to Bulgaria! This is what they built his entire election campaign on! They publicly showed on TV how he sees off his wife to Bulgaria on vacation and … that's it! And the competitors are ousted: “I stole only to Bulgaria”, “I couldn't send my wife to the Canary Islands”, “Afraid to fail!”, And so on. And "firmachi" to him: do not answer this, rotate your line. And the opponents are not appeased - after all, they have nothing else to write about! “Ivanov sent his wife to Bulgaria”, “Ivanov is afraid of losing and, out of shame, sent his wife to Bulgaria”, “You cannot vote for Ivanov. He's poor! There was only enough money to send my wife to Bulgaria! But our candidate …"
And it turned out that instead of three information streams beating in different directions, there were only two and both were hitting the same target: Ivanov, Ivanov, Ivanov … And what did he do? "I sent my wife to Bulgaria!" And people began to say: look, what they reproach - and he, to know, loves his wife! I would pay a lot, send it to the Canary Islands. “I was in Bulgaria - chicken is not a bird, Bulgaria is not abroad! Normal man, damn it! " Did anyone remember the candidates' programs? No, our people do not have such a habit of "it" to study and compare. And when voting day came and people took the ballots in their hands, they remembered one thing: “What kind of Ivanov is this? The one who sent his wife to Bulgaria! " “A good person, caring. And everyone is scolding him - that means indeed for the people! " And the majority voted for whom? For Ivanov, who … sent his wife to Bulgaria!
1919 US Communist Party logo
However, the same Peter V. Coccioni in the USA went to the elections, having prepared much more seriously. Since illiterate blacks and all sorts of emigrants were supposed to vote for him, pencils with his name were ordered - "Look and write without mistakes - Peter V. Coccioni"! We ordered the composer a song with the following words: "We will write in the bulletin, we will write down the name Peter Coccioni in the bulletin, it contains work for us all, milk for our children!" "Komsomol members" from the American Union of Young Communists ran around the city and sang this song, memorized it in circles in the Negro ghettos, handed out pencils and taught them to write! We ordered boater hats with the inscription around: Peter V. Coccioni, badges with his portrait … Following the pattern of President F. Roosevelt's "fireplace conversations", Coccioni spoke on the radio in a 15-minute program: "What do I want to do for the city?" and urged to vote for himself!
As a result, two technologies were developed for coming to power: the American one, based on the technology of American elections and our Russian (more effective) one, taking into account the mentality of Russians and based on the ZHAN effect - developed by Professor A. N. Zhmyrikov. This is a good technology. You pay a certain amount to the appropriate professional or agency and … that's it! Success is guaranteed by 80-90%. And, as you see, very little depends on the candidate himself.
However, there is always a BUT! So Coccioni used all the methods of American PR and the Communist Party gave him money, but he could not win the elections even under the RR system! And you won, do you know when? In 1941, in the winter, when everyone saw that the USSR did not intend to submit to Hitler, that the USSR was fighting and crushing the Nazis, despite all the pessimistic forecasts in the newspapers: "The Soviets will hold out until September, October, November … December …" And they not only held on, but also beat the Germans! That is, they did real deeds! It was for this that Peter V. Coccioni was voted for. And our victories turned out to be the best PR for him!
USA Communist Youth Union logo.
This article could have ended, since the conclusion from it is obvious. But I cannot deny myself the pleasure of telling more about how Peter V. Coccioni took revenge on all his enemies and persecutors from other parties, being elected. Other deputies prepared to boo his first speech: it was clear to everyone that he would begin to put forward his communist doctrines, and then … In a word, all the go-go toys, puffy tongues and pipes were bought in nearby shops.
And here he is on the podium. “While our soldiers and sailors are repelling the aggression of the insidious enemy, their salaries are low and equal to about $ 30 a month. And public transit is expensive, about one dollar to drive New York from end to end. I propose to make travel free for soldiers and sailors in uniform! Please put this proposal to a vote."
Later emblem of the US Communist Party.
Eyewitnesses later wrote that the silence in the hall was such that one could hear a fly beating against the glass. Then there was the sound of boots. This, without waiting for the results, a reporter ran into the telephone room, followed by another, and the audience burst into thunderous applause at that time. No one could even think to oppose such a proposal after December 7, 1941. This would mean putting an end to your political career forever! And everyone voted for!
The communist shop of the American workers' press. Above the editions there is an inscription "The second front now!"
Soldiers and sailors were already waiting for Cochioni on the street. They picked him up in their arms and carried him down the street, singing loudly: "This name has work, our children have milk!" And by the way, Koccioni also knocked out free milk (a glass a day!) From the legislators in his next speech. Well, and then they dragged him down the street in their arms … that's right - American housewives, whose husbands fought against the Japanese and the Nazis. They pounded on pans and pans, paralyzed the movement, but the police seemed not to notice. Patriotism, however!
After the victory at Stalingrad, the second communist … the Negro, Paul Henderson, became a member of the municipal council. Here's how! So PR is, of course, power. But politicians shouldn't forget about real deeds either!
