Here’s how you can try to win hearts and minds – use media that’s familiar to them.

In the case of the US, last year’s campaigns saw the importance of the Internet in pushing forward advocacies. Now, it seems like Japan’s politician are also making the Internet a potential political battleground.

This anime political ad is sponsored by Japan’s Liberal Democratic Party (LDP). Ever since the LDP posted this video online on Friday, it has had well over 219,000 hits.

The ad features a man (who happen to look like Democratic Party of Japan’s Yukio Hatoyama) proposing to girl in a restaurant. It is an attempt to question the DPJ’s proposals.

Japan’s Prime Minister Taro Aso of the LDP has been quite unpopular with the opposition and even with fellow party members and has called for parliamentary elections. The latest polls show that the DPJ is edging the LDP.

Here are (hastily-drafted :p ) transcript of the dialog:

Man: I am the one who will make you happy. Fill your life with roses. Ill take care of you, your maternity expenses, the expenses of your children, living expenses, and retirement expenses. We’ll speed into the highway of life as fast as you like.
Woman: But the money?
Man: We dont have to worry about anything once we get married.
Woman: What?

Groundless self-confidence or foundation?
Liberal Party Group

Let’s face it, we, Filipinos really know how to make our lives a bit more interesting. Forget Willy’s insipid Boom-Tarat-Tarat segments on Wowowee. Forget the interesting menagerie also known as politics. And let’s focus on one of the greatest (freak) shows on earth called the Pinoy web.

How many “scandals” have we come up so far given some yahoo with a PC and Internet connection? I have no real timeline for the following events since I based them mostly from recall. If anyone else would like to add some stuff, please put them in the comments, I’d like to make this list longer.

Send in the clowns!

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