Tuesday, April 19, 2022

A Sexy Devil is Still a Devil

 

Let’s be perfectly honest here but men have a way of getting turned on by the most peculiar of things. One of those peculiarities is what you’d call a “bad girl” or the type of girl who you know is bad for you but somehow there’s something very appealing about her. This attraction was best expressed by the 2000 movie Bedazzled, staring Elizabeth Hurley as the Devil.

Instead of giving us the usual “fearful” and “gruesome” devil that has been part of mythology, the producers of the movie decided that the devil would be sexy and Ms. Hurley’s voluptuous figure in limited and tight clothing became the visual highlight of the movie:

 


 Taken from Reddit

Whilst looking at Ms. Hurley in not very much was an enjoyable experience, there was an important lesson from that movie. The character she plays is the personification of all that’s evil and even if that personification is dressed up in a very “attractive package.” Hence, the male lead, played by Brandon Fraser gets screwed throughout. Simply put, he gets an attractive proposition (the girl he’s infatuated with) from an attractive package (Ms. Hurley with with not very much on). He only gets out of his predicament towards the end of the movie when he goes for what he needs (his dream girl’s happiness rather than his desire to be with her) and looks beyond the attractive offer from the attractive messenger.

The producers of Bedazzled probably never imagined that their movie would be anything more than that. However, as things turned out, the movie turned out to be prophetic. Sixteen years later, the Western World would see the rise populist politicians like Donald Trump in the USA, Nigel Farage in the UK, Geert Wilders in the Netherlands and let’s not forget Marine Le Pen in France.

All these politicians found a niche – the forgotten working class or the “losers of globalisation.” They tapped into the anger of this group and found an “attractive” message, “Your plight is not your fault, its fault of a corrupt elite trying to replace you with dirty, dark people from elsewhere, who will rape your women (literally) and you (figuratively by stealing the job that should be yours).”

Say what you like about that message, but it resonated with a large number of people, and whilst only Trump managed to win power, all of them have become key players in their respective nations. The “message” like the Devil’s message in Bedazzled has become not just addictive but “normal.” As mentioned in a previous posting, while Trump may have messed up Covid (says something when the world’s most advanced nation has higher cases than proverbial S**holes), he still commands a near religious following who, as he said, would forgive him even if he shot someone in public.

Whilst Trump generates the most discussion, the most interesting far right politician is in fact Ms. Marine Le Pen, leader of the National Rally in France. At the time of writing, Ms. Le Pen has made it to the second round of the French Presidential Election, where she faces the current President, Mr. Emanuel Macron. This is what you call a rematch of 2017, when the then unknown Mr. Macron got two thirds of the vote to Ms. Le Pen’s third.

 


 Taken from Times of Israel.

At the time of writing, the polls have indicated that Mr. Macron should probably be returned to power. However, unlike 2017, Mr. Macron cannot take victory for granted (a Le Pen presidency cannot be ruled out) as the margins will be significantly tighter (Ms. Le Pen is expected to get 47 percent of the vote).

So, you can argue that regardless of what happens, Ms. Le Pen is the actual winner of this election. She has pulled off what nobody ever imagined possible – she has made the National Rally or the National Front as it was known, electable. Ms. Le Pen inherited the National Front from her father, Jean-Marie Le Pen, a far-right politician who was quite happy to describe the Nazi Holocaust as a mere detail of history.

The older Le Pen was what you could call part of the “Crazies,” and whilst he did have an audience, the National Front was essentially unelectable. Nobody in their right mind would give actual power to Mr. Le Pen. When, Mr. Pen had a freak-streak of luck in the 2002 Presidential election and eliminated the Socialist Prime Minister, Lionel Jospin in the first round, the Socialist party’s voters rushed to vote for the incumbent, Jacques Chirac. Blocking Le Pen senior from power became imperative for voters.

 


 French – For Crazy – Taken from the Guardian

Ms. Le Pen has changed that. The National Front has been “rebranded” as the National Rally and Ms. Le Pen has “de-demonised” the party, including removing her father. The thugs have gone and if you listen to Ms. Le Pen, she sounds like a Singaporean politician – reasonable and rational.

Ms. Le Pen has done much better than her father ever did and in the 2022, she’s run a savvy campaign, hitting Mr. Macron where it hurts the most. She focused on rising prices and how they’ve hurt the most vulnerable. She’s found a way to resonate with “normal” voters.

Mr. Macron has not helped himself. Whilst he has presided good economic figures and lower unemployment, he’s come across as out of touch:

https://www.reuters.com/world/europe/french-2021-economic-growth-strongest-52-years-7-2022-01-28/#:~:text=Economists%20polled%20by%20Reuters%20had,coronavirus%20lockdowns%20were%20in%20force.

 


 https://www.macrotrends.net/countries/FRA/france/unemployment-rate

 


You could say that Mr. Macron gets what Singapore’s ruling party gets online. When he talks about strong economic growth, Ms. Le Pen hits him with “Economic growth for whom?”

So, credit to Ms. Le Pen for rebranding her party and becoming an attractive candidate for “normal” voters. Like the Devil in Bedazzled, she’s packaged an attractive message well.

However, one needs to ask if Ms. Le Pen is really an attractive person deserving of power or is she like the Devil in Bedazzled, still the devil no matter how she may look or sound. Let’s face it, even if Ms. Le Pen has “de-crazied” the message of the National Rally (Front), her message is still pretty much the same. Yes, the message can sound reasonable and it may resonate, but should it be normal? Just take a look at the following from Politico:

https://www.politico.eu/article/marine-le-pen-french-election-france-in-her-own-words-macron/

She’s not sending mindless thugs onto the street but her solution remains similar to the simplicity of Trump’s – focus on the minorities and brutalise them with the force of the law when possible.

Sure, Ms. Le Pen has tried to soften some of her more extremist stances like leaving the EU and NATO (the institutions that guarantee economic and military security) and she’s also tried to soften her support for the villain of the year – Russia’s president, Vladimir Putin.

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-61073894

 


 Credit where credit is due – Ms. Le Pen has pulled of an incredible rebranding exercise and run a very savvy political campaign and Mr. Macron has in some ways not helped himself.

However, as anyone who works in marketing communications or branding will tell you – no amount of branding or communication can change what a product is. Ms. Le Pen is at heart a snake oil saleslady pushing for the worst in humankind. In 2017, the French voters defied a trend to keep the ultimate prize away from Ms Le Pen. Say what you like about Mr. Macron but he’s not brought out the lowest in people and has kept France on the path of sanity. The French voters should remember that a sexy devil is still a devil.

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