Presidential Campaigns: Amr Moussa

Slogan

We're ready for the challenge: using "we" has its charm, is explains that Moussa's project is one that needs everyone to take part in, as he puts it. The challenge is not the best choice though, it is a sign of the power of the we, yet I can't help ask myself who exactly are we challenging? It seems to be inspired from Obama's "yes we can" (shows in the commercial), except it focuses on an unexplained challenge rather than that we can. It's not bad, but could have been better, especially when considering the endless amount of money Moussa's campaign has.

The rebuilding of Egypt: too obvious, also gives a feeling that we're now a complete failure and that he'll turn everything upside down. It doesn't go with him being a very slight reformer. His plan is to almost leave things as is, and this doesn't go with the slogan. Yet even if it does, it still gives a feeling that we're a mess of a country and only him can turn us into a real one which makes it a sort of an insulting slogan. Or maybe I feel this way because I'm against him and I can't be neutral, if so then I'm sorry, I'm just a human being.

One people....one nation: says something about unity of Muslims and Christians, it focuses on the "target audience". Yet again, it's a sentence that doesn't have any meaning at all.

Poster

Moussa has many different posters, but this is the only one available online. They change the background of the poster; sometimes it has workers/plants, other times farmers/farms, other times the one above, and I might have seen one with a mosque and a church too. This is a nice idea that makes you want to focus on the billboard/poster/banner to see all the changed nice backgrounds. It also implies that he'd be a president for all Egyptians, like his third slogan but in a much better way. The foregrounds (him) also change. In this one his head is tilted upwards and he looks down to the camera, a sign of him being as bumptious as can be, which is how he really is (was clear in the debate). His smile is too big and looks sarcastic, it says "I'm going to get your vote, ha!". Holding his arms to his chest is putting a barrier between him and the rest, and a sign of self protection. In other posters he appears with no tie, which is very cliched, looking to the sky and frowning. He looks too serious, and sort of angry, and as I said the dreamy look is not a good idea, and he doesn't look like a person dreaming of a bright future with his frown. There's another picture of him with no tie, and an even bigger smile with the same head tilt. The sun is always bright in the background, a sign of the bright of future he'll bring and also to match his electoral sign, the sun. The logo with the handwriting and the free lines with the colors of the flag is a sign of freedom. Him standing tall in the posters makes him look like a snob even more than he already is. Overall, the posters are nice yet he ruins them.

Commercial

An amazing commercial, whoever has done it has done a very good and professional job. He shows people from all sorts of backgrounds, and each of them completes his sentence. This gives the impression that he plans to work with people, that his program is all about people wanting the betterment of the country with his guidance. He is at his office, giving the hints, ideas and guidelines, and the people implement it.  The background music is a wonderful mixture of our culture, the sounds of the adan and the church bells we hear everyday bring fondness to our hearts. The scenes go with the words very well, like when they say renaissance they show a boy in his 20s (the one who will work for the renaissance) next to the great Egyptian monument by Mahmoud Mokhtar that also carries the same name, Egypt's Renaissance. And when they talk about challenges and hope, they show a wheat field; an Ancient Egyptian sign of prosperity and civilization. And the person who says that hopes are big is a young girl that signifies a whole generation of hope and will for a better Egypt. Not only is it very well done, direction wise, the words and how they're said stick in one's head and touches one's heart. The sun is also focused on, for the same reason of the posters, yet I thought it would have a bigger focus. Again, the worst thing in the commercial is Moussa himself, his words are not as honest as Abo El Fotooh's by any means and although the actors have a great deal of enthusiasm, his voice is plain and lame and he looks more of an actor than any of them. What is even worse is that I'm almost sure that they used a blurring filter in all his close scenes to hide his wrinkles. This made him look sick and dimmed any sort of light he could have had in his face. It also made the sky in the background look grey, which doesn't go with the bright future shown in the rest of the commercial.

On the ground

Moussa has roamed the whole country, and still is. He is literally everywhere all the time with his posters, banners, billboards, and conferences. Moussa has not focused on one part of the country or one type of citizens, he has gone everywhere and talked with everyone. On a one way trip from Roxy to Smart Village, I have seen 29 billboards of different sizes (many of which are big), for Moussa. This is the biggest number of billboards I have seen for a candidate in this trip.

Money

This campaign has a huge amount of money, almost endless. His commercial is almost two minutes and is aired many times at the most expensive times. His billboards are invading our streets, so are his posters and banners. He even has electronic ads in many websites. The conferences he does everyday also need a great amount of money. I have no idea where all this money came from, and I expect him to be supported by many businessmen that are worried about their lives and business in this mess. But it's not only this, this campaign has probably paid a lot more than the ten million pounds allowed for the campaigning! Someone should find out how much money he had spent and of course where he got this money!