Presidential Campaigns: Ahmed Shafiq

Slogan

Deeds....not words: this is the translation of a cliched American slogan. The meaning is not bad, but it's one slogan that needs to be proven more than any other. It is also one that revolves around Shafiq and only Shfiq, which makes it negatively different from the rest. The rest are either about the country or the people or the people and the candidate. This one is only about Shafiq and how good he is. Slogans that have the people as part of them are way better and give a feeling of unity, a sign that the president is a leader and the people are his team, that he can't do anything without their support.

Egypt for all and by all: plays on the part about Islamists and how they might discriminate against Christians and Muslim liberals. It's something against Islamists, but not for Shafiq, this is how things should be. It hasn't said anything new, just like Moussa's "one people, one nation".

Poster

This poster is "elegant", the dark blue and beige are aristocratic colors and his suit matches the colors. It gives you a feeling that this is Shafiq Pasha, not Shafiq the presidential candidate. The dark blue, or the midnight blue, is a sign of sadness and depression or even dark ages. As elegant as it looks, the colors are not a good choice for a candidate's poster. The font used for his name is also aristocratic and unlike Sabahy's font, this one doesn't come close to one's heart. Maybe because Shafiq is not written on a straight line, or that the letters are too big. Or maybe because I'm unable to see it with neutral eyes. His smile is nice, not too big, not too small, his overall look is a nice one, although it would have been better if his face took less space.

There is this one with his popular pullover, his face is nice and even the pullover looks better than the jacket-without-a-tie look. But do you remember the aim of that look? That he's one of us, just like anyone and all these lovely "words", right? Well, this look doesn't go with the expensive watch he's wearing and intending to show. I have to say that his pullover and shirt are very stylish, like most of his clothes.

Commercial

Having Tarek Nour doing his campaign, I thought Shafiq would have the best commercials, but he doesn't. In this commercial he doesn't talk to us at all, and he says just a few words about how he sees a better Egypt. The rest of the commercial is just people saying that they want him and that he's the best candidate and so on. They also chose to show a veiled woman saying that she likes him, as proof that even religious people want him. As if they thought any veiled woman would want an Islamist and that this is a great discovery. The way he stresses on "I" only proves that he is a narcissist, which will be proven over and over in other commercials.

This one again doesn't have him talking to us. It's a bit better than the other commercial, at least he talks about what he wants to do a bit more and shows fields and firms and the sky. But compared to the rest of the candidate's commercials, it is very bad.

This the equal of the Sabahy's commercial about religions and unity and so on. As I said, I have no idea who it is targeted at, and it is still a useless commercial. But in this campaign, it's one of six or more commercials, and it is one of the short commercials, it is just a small fraction of the campaign, way less than Sabahy who gave half his commercials to this matter.

It's beyond me how this commercial is all talk talk talk when his slogan is deeds not words. Also the fact that he is talking to someone in the background and sitting in a villa draws us so far away from what he says. He stressed on the word security because he knows very well the people he's targeting. The words are not very bad, but they're just words. This commercial is also a narcissist one that shows him and plays his voice in all scenes.

One more narcissist commercial that has Shafiq talking about himself and his achievements. The music in all commercials is very nice, so is the way he talks. This commercial shows how much of a Mubarak Shafiq plans to be by talking about how great of a man he is.

 There is another commercial that I won't be able to judge, because it's not targeting me. It probably has a positive effect on those who are targeted... I don't know. I know it's funny though, and what is even funnier is that the singer is Shaaban Abd El Reheem's (Moussa's supporter) son. Here it is:

On the ground

Shafiq is roaming the country, literally. His billboards, posters and banners are also everywhere, although his billboards are not as much as those of Moussa or even Abo El Fotooh. On a trip from Roxy to Smart Village I saw 10 billboards of different sizes of Shafiq. He seems to be focusing his money on things other than the billboards, or maybe his billboards are more focused in downtown.

Money

Conferences, commercials,  commercials, commercials, billboards, posters, banners.... The number of commercials, their length and the times they're aired is the biggest proof of his money. And just like Moussa, I think this campaign has already used more than the ten million pounds allowed by the elections committee. It's beyond me how nobody every checks on the money or its sources. Whoever is responsible for this job is a complete failure, or a complete intended failure!