Cultural relevance, being ‘cool’, whatever that means, is the holy grail for which brands will pay through the nose and hire entire teams to achieve. It's not something any politician has ever really managed. So why is it that politicians struggle so much when it comes to their own personal brands? How do they consistently manage to get it so very, very wrong?
Hopefully whoever came up with this particular idea has taken some time out since to give themselves a long talking to…brace yourselves.
Reports have surfaced that Nick Clegg spent almost £8,000 filming a remake of Carly Rae Jepsen’s* I Really Like You* before last year’s general election.
Apparently (according to The Times) the former Deputy Prime Minister took Tom Hanks’ role in the video, where Hanks is shown walking through the streets of New York giving people high fives, Clegg pounded the pavements of Gravesend in Kent.
Why, you might be wondering, have I never seen this cinematographic gem? Well, because the video was ‘quietly shelved’ and never actually saw the light of day. Speaking to The Times an inside source said that the video ‘made no sense’. Another said that at the end of the day’s filming Clegg’s only feeling was ‘Why the f*** did I do that?’, which explains why the film has been kept secret.
The Debrief asked the Lib Dems whether we could see the video, a spokesperson said:
‘Yes, we made the video (and no you can't see it)
It was aimed to generate some fun around the campaign.’
We’ll never know whether the video would have been a game changer or not. Unless, of course, what Clegg did in it was set our clear policies for improving the lives of millennials across the country to the tune of Carly Rae Jepsen.
Here’s the thing, Nick Clegg is actually a great politician. He was one of the few who, once upon a time before the great tuition fee hike, could speak to young people without having to rely on contrived ‘lolz’. He spoke to us because he was earnest and passionate, not because he was trying to be something he’s not.
Politics either seems to ignore young people completely or patronise them unthikingly. We don’t want our politicians to be all-singing, all-dancing celebrities/comedians. We just want them to be legit. We want them to make the world a better place. That’s cool. We want them to say what the mean and mean what they say. That's on trend.
Young people don't want gimicks, they want clear policies and honest analysis. As we saw with StrongerIn's patronising pre-Brexit youth focussed campaign,in the great race to go viral it seems the penny hasn't quite dropped with political strategists.
Here’s a video of Nick Clegg being very legit:
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This article originally appeared on The Debrief.