Yesterday first woman was elected for a President in Costa Rica - 50 years old Laura Chinchilla (szynszyl in Polish). I wanted to write a few words about her campaign, since she is just the 5th female President in history of Latin America. While searching for candidates I was becoming more and more surprised, discovering how vivid, spectacular, and most of all - funny was the campaign in Costa Rica. Competition between candidates was more straightforward and witty than anything we can observe in our so called 'experienced democracies' in Europe or in US. The main cultural difference however is the extend of which politicians keep one's distance and are ready to make fun of themselves.
Pregnant woman singing for candidate, walking half-naked in the advertisement, or 'flying heads' are just some of the ideas. Take a look on the one of the most important socialists candidate -Otto Solis's spot against Laura Chinchilla:
Similar spots presenting other candidates as marionettes were supposed to uncover their incompetency. Laura didn't have an easy life during the campaign as she was even compared to Hitler by her opponents, but due to my lack of knowledge of Spanish I only present those spots who speak through an image.
Generally the campaign seem to be very bright, colorful and musical. Flying heads seem to match the Costarican aesthetics. This is the spot of Otto Guevara (no proved bonds with Che Guevara) - libertarian candidate who promoted the idea of as little of state apparatus as possible.
The same candidate in another spot, is showing half-naked man explaining that 'It's the only way not to get robbed on the street':
But the most truly surprising spot for me was the one of Luis Fishman - social Christian candidate. Yes, that's him wearing a diper and holding a bottle-feed. Enjoy.
