First Looks: USU Campaign Social Media
Ellie Stephenson takes a look at the campaigns so far.
(Note: Ellie is a former member of Grassroots)
With campaigning and voting for the USU Board occurring entirely online this year, the candidates’ social media vibes are more important than ever. Perhaps this new style of campaigning brings with it a new metric of success: page engagement. As of the writing of this article, second-year Ruby Lotz was well ahead, on 435 likes. Nick Rigby was next, at 337. That was followed by Prudence Wilkins-Wheat (334), Belinda Thomas (321), Ben Hines (229), and in a distant sixth, Vikki Qin with 64 likes, then Amir Jabbari and Eitan Harris, who arrived a little late to the social media game this afternoon and have 34 and 11 likes respectively.
Meanwhile, Board hopefuls Ada Choi and Jiale Wang did not appear to have Facebook pages yet, an interesting strategy given an online campaign would intuitively need as much of a head-start as it can get. We await with interest their campaign aesthetics!
Here’s our first look at the (existent) pages, promotions and graphic design.
Happy Ending at USYD: Amir Jabbari for USU
Branding: Amir is running on the slogan “Happy Ending”, with no logo in particular but some really wild marketing choices. He is promoting his “100 Secret Policies which went Viral”, although it’s very unclear in what respect they went viral nor how they are especially secret.
Cover photo: The cover photo features a stock photo women biting her lip and crossing her fingers for “Happy Ending, Dating Programs & Crazy Parties to A-Z Support”. Is this all an innuendo?
Posting: Amir has really got posting. His pinned post tells us he’s “running like a horse” for the election. He appears to have completely missed the whole ‘financial disrepair due to pandemic’ thing over the last few months and is promising a “year full of abundance”. The post features a truly strange image reading “Happy Ending is finally at Sydney University” and featuring a marble statue man holding a horseshoe magnet. We tried to interpret this. Is this a reference to the candidate’s own magnetism? Our feelings are summarised by the “WHAT?!!!!” at the bottom of the image.
In another post, Amir says: “Open the doors to unlimited fun and support at USyd”, and in yet other he wants to “flatten the curve of depression, anxiety, boredness and sadness at USYD”. This powerful social messaging seems more geared towards flouting social distancing than getting on Board.
Amir’s 100 “viral” policies:
Amir hopes his Top Secret policies will each improve students’ lives by 1%. That’s nice, except then you read the policies. Here are some of our favourites:
Introducing “Dating” programs to help students overcome loneliness (if single) and break ups (for those who broke up)
Introducing “Typing-free” Study areas across the campus where students aren’t allowed to type loudly using their keyboards
Fixing [insert piece of uni infrastructure the USU has no control over here]
Introducing “Laughing” programs where we gather and just laugh
Introducing more online publications - each focusing on a different matter (wow, thanks)
Amir’s campaign aims for a lot of hype. Perhaps if you’re a student who just wants Amir to make you laugh, it delivers.
Bring on Belinda - Belinda Thomas for USU
Logo:
Belinda is going for pretty. Drawn over the bright red background is a delicate sketch of cherry blossom in black and white, upon which “Bring on Belinda” is written in white. This could only be used in a year when your logo doesn’t need to be screen-printed on a T-Shirt, but it certainly goes for a very different vibe to all the other candidates.
Cover photo:
Belinda’s cover photo also employs the floral motif, alongside a red gradient on either side of a photo of her standing on Eastern Avenue. The text reads “On May 18-22, Bring on recovery, Bring on the Con, Bring on student life” and “Bring on Belinda”. The common theme of economic recovery emerges once again, alongside a nod to Belinda’s enrolment at the Con. The text, small and written over the photo, is a little hard to read.
Policy Statement:
Belinda’s policy statement is fairly extensive, with a list of policies on “recovery”, the Con, student life and C&S, each with some description, although some are rather vague, like “2020 is a new Strategic Plan period: this is a chance to not only recover but to reinvent the status quo”. Alarmingly, Belinda writes “I’m running an incredibly personal campaign - one that is literally inked into my skin”. At first, I worry she’s got a “Bring on Belinda” face tattoo but, consulting the comments, it seems she just has a flower tattoo. Not exactly the drastic commitment I was picturing.
I’m backing Ben: Ben Hines for USU
Logo:
Ben’s logo is a turquoise scribble with “I’m Backing Ben” in a similarly scribbly font over the top. It is really, really reminiscent of Honorary Treasurer Maya Eswaran’s “Maya is My Choice” design - perhaps this is a sign that Ben wants to attract the electorally lucrative debating community, but from the right. Will it work?
Cover photo:
Ben’s cover photo features the candidate himself standing on the Law Lawns (attempting to cash in on the SULS vote?) with turquoise scribbles on either side of him featuring his logo and the slogan “Backing COVID-19 Support, Backing Campus Culture, Backing ALL Students”. It’s clear he’s going for a populist, student services focused campaign.
Policy Statement:
Ben takes a swipe at Honi in the comments of his policy statement, saying “Wait Honi Soit you guys said this was brief? I count 20 policies here”. Well, there are 20 policies but they are brief: one-liners like “Improved consultation with club executives over changes” and “Affordable food outlets and cheaper special deals”. Students looking for detail won’t find it here but it provides a readable statement of priorities on five areas: COVID support, C&S improvements, campus culture, international student issues, and the Con. Personally, my favourite thing about this policy statement is the randomly bolded words throughout. My eyes jump from one to another, forming a strange genre of hack free-verse poem: Ben YOUR The USU is important ideas sensible policies offer so much more. It’s moving stuff.
Eitan Harris for USU Board
Logo: Eitan’s logo seems to just be a picture of his face and his slogan is “A USU for all” - it seems he’s keeping it simple and hoping his policies will do the talking.
Cover photo: Eitan’s cover photo features his image on a purple background, with his three key policy areas: Disability Access and Representation; Mental Health Support; and Combatting Racism on Campus. Details on these policies seem yet to be posted.
Rigby’s Ready: Nick Rigby for USU
Logo:
Nick’s design features bold text reading “Rigby’s Ready” and a bright blue lightning bolt. I imagine the goal here is to lean into the ‘re-energise, reconnect, regrow’ slogan with the electric feel. All I can think of, though, is blue gatorade. For the thirsty, low-on-electrolyte student, perhaps this is a good move?
Cover Photo:
Nick’s cover photo features him leaning gently against an archway in the Quadrangle with the words ‘re-energise, reconnect, regrow’ flickering on the left-hand side of the image. It’s clear he’s focussing the vibes of this campaign on reviving the USU from its COVID-19 slump.
Campaign Video:
Rigby’s first campaign video is strangely reminiscent of both Switch’s typical epilepsy-warning-required flashing videos and 2019 SULS ticket POP’s cartoon feel. “Hey USYD, It’s time to get ready for someone who can take on the USU”, it flashes urgently with its marker-drawn font. Nevermind that Rigby’s largely apolitical and status-quo policies are hardly revolutionising the institution, his campaign aesthetic is boldly alternating between turquoise and regular bright blue. Brave stuff.
Policy statement:
Nick has gone for a regular, fairly brief notes policy statement and a full-throated endorsement of the rule of threes. It’s divided into ‘READY to Reconnect Students’, ‘READY to Re-energise Campus Life’, and ‘READY to Regrow Our Union’, each with three policies beneath them. Nick’s policy commitments are broad (see promises like “hold more USU social events for students” and “bring more festivals and large-scale events to campus”) and largely pretty standard. Interestingly, there’s a commitment to “protect the University of Sydney Union’s staff community” - is this a response to current pushes from the left regarding supporting staff who’ve been stood down or made redundant during COVID-19?
Pru for USU - Vote 1 Prudence Wilkins-Wheat
Logo:
Prudence has got lucky with her name: her logo is a neat stack of the words “PRU” “FOR” “USU”. The campaign is unsurprisingly yellow themed. It uses the classic Switch combination of yellow, black and white (we are no doubt in for yet another flashing campaign video) and bold all-caps text. This campaign aesthetic is what you would get if you closed your eyes and visualised the words “Switch election run”.
Cover Photo:
The cover photo is a somewhat cluttered tryptic: On the left, the Pru For USU logo; in the centre, the flickering slogan “environmental, left-wing, experienced”; on the right, Prudence, half obscured. She looks like she’s peeking out from her own campaign material. Her slogan demonstrates her openly activist, left-wing campaign, something of a contrast from the largely services focus of the other candidates.
Post 1:
Prudence’s first post is an infographic about how and why students should join the USU in order to vote. This is probably a good strategic move to ensure turnout: students must join the organisation by the 15th of May in order to vote. Amusingly, the “Why Join” slide reads “You can join the USU’s world-class debating team”, perhaps a signal that Prudence, like Ben, is attempting to secure the votes of the Debating Society (which, indeed, contains more than one team). This post also reveals that the campaign also has an Instagram (@pru_for_usu) and a TikTok (@pruforusu). So far, this seems like a pretty well-prepared and social media heavy campaign.
Policy Statement:
This policy statement is long. Not quite Liam Donohoe’s SRC president policy statement long, but long. It introduced four policy platforms which include: “A more progressive union, environmental change, support for student culture, Student services”. Each issue has a paragraph of “background” explaining the context of the policy and then dot points with the actual policies. Each policy is elaborated upon, with examples of the specific actions they would involve. It’s unclear, though, why it includes minutiae like the USU facilities management or every single problem facing small clubs - reading through the statement is a slog and would be more accessible if it got to the point.
Rebuild with Ruby: Ruby Lotz for USU
Logo:
Ruby’s orange-coloured logo features a featureless but rather detailed lego figure wearing construction gear, an extremely literal reading of her slogan “Rebuild with Ruby”. Either the NLS design team are fans of Channel 9’s Lego Masters or Ruby is a faceless handyman who comes to hammer our Union into shape. Although the font choice for ‘ruby lotz for usu’ is so thin as to be almost unreadable, what is clear is that Ruby’s campaign aesthetic is, like several other candidates, geared towards rebuilding the financially-beleaguered institution.
Ruby’s logo
The competition she thinks she’s on
Cover photo:
Moving past the irritation of a cover photo incorrectly sized for phone, Ruby’s cover photo features orange bands of colour, her image taken somewhere sandstone-y, the text ‘Rebuild with Ruby’ and a strip of orange lego bricks in case you really missed the rebuild theme. Perhaps this is all a message to the critical gaze of student media: “don’t step on me, it’ll hurt like hell”.
Campaign video:
The campaign video flashes between orange and grey policy slides, claiming the USU is “at a crossroads” and Ruby will “rethink, revive, rebuild”. The syntax in this video is wacky. It asks you things like “you wanna drug sex and consent week?”, “You wanna transparency review?” and “You wanna new performance spaces?”. Do I want to new performance spaces? Unclear. Also, let’s just note the missed opportunity by the campaign here: why was this video not Lego stop-motion?
Policy statement:
Ruby’s policy statement is thorough and pretty well-written. Divided between the campaigns three favourite verbs, rethink, revive and rebuild, each policy gets a small paragraph justifying why it’s needed and how it would work. While a fairly long read, it avoids the excessive contextualising of Prudence’s manifesto. And then something catches my eye. It’s the phrase “Lotz of condoms”. Really?
Vi Got You - Vikki Qin for USU
Logo:
Vikki’s logo is… uh… toilet paper. It’s a cutesy cartoon roll with “Vote Vikki #1” on one of the sheets. Given her campaign name - “Vi Got You” - the implication is that Vikki is as necessary for everyday life as toilet paper and we should all go panic-vote her in. The logo looks like a gif on a ‘stay home’ Instagram story and all we can say is, it’s very attuned to the zeitgeist of three weeks ago.
Cover Photo:
First up, the cover photo is cut off on my phone, which is annoying and easily avoidable. Other than that, it mainly looks like a high school promotional video, with neat stripes of navy blue, cream and white and the employment of a chalkboard-style font. “Inclusive, Dedicated, Passionate” flashes in the right of the screen while Vikki poses in front of Manning in the left. She’s dyed her hair blue, which is impressively dedicated to the Election.
