Pirate Party: Parliamentary Elections 2022
"Heads-Up: The area of politics can be very divisive. We're fully aware of that. If the area of politics is sensitive for you, and you are to continue reading this article, we ask you to observe the techniques we used to bring the messaging out, instead of its content."
How Our Involvement Came to Be
RocketCoil is a progressive company. Our values are human first, collaborative, and communicative. We strive to be dreamers, but grounded in reality and right here, right now. We love the Randy Pausch quote "We cannot change the cards we are dealt, just how we play the hand".
When at the end of the year 2021 it was clear that the next elections (April 2022) will be the political equivalent of Wild West in Slovenia, we were faced with a decision. Stand back, look at the theatre, and comment in the end, or - do something. After a quick glance at the roster of political parties we can choose from, Pirates seemed to be the choice to pick. A progressive party with human rights in mind, and the environment at the forefront, but at the same time, knowing full well that the ideals we strive for are slow to come around, and with consideration to people who might not share your ideals all the way through.
The traditional polar opposites of the political spectrum were far too extremist, dismissive, and often times insulting to different thinking.
We should point out, for the people reading this outside of Slovenia and especially outside of Europe: Compared to the rest of the world, Slovenian politics is still - relatively speaking - tame.
The Goal: 4 the People
The Pirate Party of Slovenia had a fairly simple (not easy) and - arguably - modest goal: To finally enter the Parliament. For this to happen, they had to secure 4% of the popular vote on that fateful day. Simple math will render us the reality, that strictly mathematically speaking, every 25th voter had to circle their number on the ballot. At first look, this seems to be an easy task, but it never was, and as the next few months have shown, it was even harder this time around. Not just for the Pirates, but for absolutely every political party.
The Setting: Absolutely Brutal
This page is about our approach to the project, what actions we took, and what our challenges are. We’ve written extensively about the setting we were working in on our Blog. Head over there for more insight we’ve had to navigate through.
“How will we spread the word? Quick notice - we can’t count on the media.”
RocketCoil Involvement
“The most inspiring part about the Pirates was, that they really are just people. Like you, like me.”
Prerequisites
Pirate Party used a redesigned version of their logo, a white flag on a black circle. If the background is black, it was a black flag on a white circle. Since they used white letters on black backgrounds for a while, we decided to use the "alternative" branding most of the time.
“We wanted to make sure everyone will pick up on their identity at the first glance, so this was a way to go.
One of the first items we made is the roll-up.”
Credibility
In Slovenia, it's almost customary to have bad design for the elections, and we wanted to impress people who take design seriously. Some of the bigger parties had really terrible designs. Some of it might be by choice, as at times it caught your eye. We chose to not pull shenanigans, and go with designs that are easy to like, easy to read, and easy to adapt.
Circles, Bebas Neue, white on black. That’s the name of the game. Simple, adaptable.
Adaptability
At RocketCoil we never prepared so many variations of anything for different uses before. Countless billboard variations, countless poster variations, newspaper versions, color capabilities (we can print black and really black), print, and screen.
This is why we developed our design to be beautiful in every context. We chose the simplest path - circles, and black.
Words
Perhaps our favorite challenge was how to turn the idea into words. Pirate candidates had the right ideas. They love people, nature, privacy, progress, and inclusivity. And most importantly, fair play. However, they are the most ordinary people at heart. None of them was particularly smooth-talking like you usually see politicians on TV.
Few of them wore suits, and seldomly (most never did). As a consequence, they used everyday language even for the most powerful ideas, but they didn’t have a good ring to it.
We took their ideas and turned them into slogans. Short, punchy, to the point, encompassing the idea, energy, and urgency.
““I want a country that’s truly “social” in the truest sense of the word. Not the one that means slipping into poverty, but the one, that means solidarity, equality, and respect for everyone.””
Truly, Pirate ideas were great. Who wouldn’t fall in love with the quote above? However, Petra had the chance to tell that at any and every event she attended. So, we need a shorter version.
We only have one line available for the billboard. We had roughly five words to hit the gist of it and hit it hard.
So we turned that into “[We]’re the Social Country!”
Blah Blah Blah
[Bla Bla Bla]
The "main" slogan was outrageously hard to find. We felt anything we come up with either sounded like an idea from a high schooler, or doesn't have any rhythm to it, some were too similar to what other parties went with, and so on.
Besides, other parties and their slogans oftentimes were the exact opposite of what was in the public eyes. The more democratic the party claimed to be, the more authoritarian it worked. The more equality a party promised, the more it hated everyone who don't agree with them.
Bottom line - slogans don't mean shit. So what do we use as a slogan? Nothing. How do we express it?
“Bottom line - slogans don’t meanshit.
So what do we use as a slogan?
Nothing.
How do we express it?”
Bla. Bla. Bla. (translates to Blah. Blah. Blah.)
Words don't mean anything if you don't stand behind them.
The anti-slogan was a success.
News, as in, Newspaper
Pirates decided to issue a newspaper, in a similar fashion Polish Pirate Party did. They wrote the articles, and RocketCoil placed them into the final form. They issued three editions leading up to the elections.
Social Media
We created a myriad of social media posts that get to the point in a simple graphic with few words. They address corruption, lack of transparency, and the need for equal opportunity.
Results
The results came back. Most parties had a significant drop in voters from the former election cycle.
In absolute numbers, Pirates kept their voters, since they had a few votes over the previous elections. The percentage of voters was slightly lower (under 2% this time around). Compared to some of the bigger parties, Pirates did good. Most of them lost 50% or more voters in raw numbers, as almost everyone wanted to make sure that at the time the leading party doesn't keep their position.
The baseline was taken care of - The Pirates are staying in the game.
Who voted for the Pirates?
Young people did. As the youth generally tends to be more liberal, it showed that if it was for the young people (especially between 18 and 24 years old), Pirates would end up solidly in the parliament, with the fifth biggest percent of voters. The people we expected to address were addressed, successfully so. But alas, the young tend to not be as politically active, and it showed.
source: casoris.si /RTV
In this voting round, only around 7% of eligible voters under the age of 30 showed up. Technically, that's less than one out of 14. That's despite these elections being one of the most hyped in this Millenium.
With all this in mind, the Pirates have a much greater chance in the next round. Current young voters will grow older, they'll see more of the political field. We hope to be there with the Pirates for the next round as well.