PETALING JAYA, May 8 — On YouTube, content supporting political parties, interviews with candidates and party leaders, and coverage of ceramah have been uploaded around the clock in the build-up to Polling Day.
But just as the official campaigning period started after Nomination Day on April 28, a more subtle and subliminal message began to surface on the video-sharing platform.
The clips made no direct reference to or mention any parties, with no apparent slogans or logos, or even suggestion that they were politically inclined.
Two such examples were the series titled #BiarBenar (a Malay phrase that could mean both “Really?” and “Be True”) which have run since March, and #NamaSayaNajib (Malay for “My name is Najib”) that started publishing on the eve of the dissolution of Parliament on April 6.
#BiarBenar focused on two characters called Fakta and Auta (Malay for “Fact” and “Fallacy”), the former, a handsome man smartly dressed in a buttoned-down blue shirt while the latter, scruffy in a yellow T-shirt printed with the word “clean” — a dig at polls watchdog Bersih 2.0 and its signature colour.
In one episode, “Periksa dulu sebelum percaya!” (Check first before you believe it!), a “true or false” game show where Auta attempts to prove “viral” news against his counterpart Fakta, who calmly debunks the information as a conspiracy.
#BiarBenar first surfaced on the YouTube account of Barisan Nasional (BN) web portal therakyat.com, but has since been reposted on other accounts.
For a period, the videos ran as sponsored advertisements on YouTube, sometimes appearing as a “bumper ad”, a clip that plays for a minimum of five seconds before the content you selected begins, as well as other websites that cater to mass audiences.
For #NamaSayaNajib, the show showed a misunderstood young boy prone to making errors but someone who ultimately deserves forgiveness for having the best intentions.
The series was produced by Gelora Hauz, who describes itself as an independent film channel “creating content from a different approach”.
Viral videos were also produced by Opposition pact Pakatan Harapan (PH), with a music video of Tak Nak BN (Don’t want BN) repackaged as an all-singing, all-dancing new animated clip that accused the ruling coalition of misleading the public.
The song was originally launched during the 2016 Sarawak state election and endorsed by DAP.
The Opposition’s videos were similarly sponsored and appeared on advertisement toolbars across the internet.
The art of cyber warfare
Whether videos like these have the power to persuade voters, however, especially the undecided, remains to be seen.
Monash University arts and social sciences lecturer Tan Meng Yoe told Malay Mail the ideas purported in the commercials reinforce a party’s agenda, rather than introduce new ways of thinking.
“Political ads during the campaign period serve to affirm pre-existing opinions rather than sway them,” said Tan, whose current body of research includes political communication.
“When you see an ad by a political party you favour, it affirms your support for them, and vice versa. If you don’t support that political party, it’s likely you’ll brush it off as propaganda or lies.
“What’s interesting about the series, though, is that the comments section is disabled. I suspect that’s where the real political marketing would have taken place,” he added.
Tan wished the videos would at least persuade viewers, including potentially targeted undecided voters, to invest more time in learning about the election.
“For undecided voters, actually for all voters, I certainly hope that the ads at least interest them enough to ask questions and find out more about the political parties, candidates and issues, prior to the elections,” he said.
Digital content plays an increasingly important role in voter decision in Malaysia, from Facebook to text-messaging app, WhatsApp, and now YouTube.
As long as people depend on their devices for information, there is an opportunity to swoop on potential voters. Material shared online in this sense is termed micro-moments, meaning a voter may decide on his or her candidate based on seeing an election ad or reading a WhatsApp message, he said.
“The length of time one takes to swipe and scroll through the smartphone screen, which is pretty short, is all the time you have to capture their attention,” said Tan.
“So if you have great content that fulfils a need immediately, they’ll stop moving their thumb and you’ll get your shot at convincing them about something.”
He insisted, however, the impact of these ads serves only as arms in the cyber warfare with the sole aim of defeating the enemy.
“These aren’t algorithm-derived social media ads that repeatedly tempt you to buy something you searched for until you cave in. There’s no ‘impulse buying’ attached to a political ad campaign. I see it more as a tool for rallying the troops,” Tan said.
