EVERYBODY knows XYZ & their miserable excuses for products totally suck anyway, so there’s no use mentioning them at all.

Well not really. I don’t research the “whiteness” of Downey fabric softener versus “other leading brands”. I need some paid b-rate actress to tell me! Then I need some child actress with crazy parents to smile and giggle as she’s rubbing her face against clean white towels.

I think it is good that our culture doesn’t have that high degree of “Competitor X is rubbish because…” yet, if fo rno more other reason than it is a very negatively charged atmosphere to live in.

I haven’t seen much of this election campaign as I am in Stockholm (and frankly only Sfp and occasionally SDP seems to bother to advertise in Hufvudstadsbladet these days). However, the last Swedish election campaign back in the summer/autumn did show dangerous signs of an “Americanisation” of politics, where there seemed to be a lot of mud slinging towards opponents and not very much actual discussion of policies. I think this is a great shame as it only serves to disengage the voters which is bad for democracy.

Heh, Heinäluoma is jesusing around mud slinging…Just wait SAK to roll out their campaign for this election and there is this exploiting capitalist cutting the coffee breaks, chasing widows to cold autumn night and grabbing children their last toys or something.

Then Kokoomus is stupid enough to recognize itself from the caricature, gets offended and demands an apology.

Then Kokoomus is stupid enough to recognize itself from the caricature, gets offended and demands an apology.

Isn’t kokoomus the party of civil servants and white collar slaves? What does it have to do with capitalists? Perhaps it needs to actively identify itself as a representative of capitalists in order to continue the delusions of its constituent base.

Eero Heinäluoma is a dork. Kudos to Katainen for calling his bluff, and guess what …..oops Heinäluoma doesn’t like it when someone points out the flaws in his logic. It is about time we have some healthy debate to let people make an informed decision

i wish this country would follow america in other areas aswel.

i wish this country would follow america in other areas aswel.

Let’s call Pablo’s associates in Bogota, import a few tons, do a simple acid-base-extraction and start business on the Jakomäki mall. Let’s get some life into the ghetto!

Meanwhile, our partners get the private prison industry going. Talk about synergies! $$$!

There’s obviously a huge difference between criticising a party’s numbers and mudslinging. Whether a party is making promises it cannot keep is a matter of objective fact and it would be appropriate for the papers to research it and report to the electorate.

This is nothing like the US. Even the UK has nothing like the level of dirt thrown as the US. Negative campaigning is only acceptable in the US and frankly, it is a rotten system. What you need in a democracy is an open and informed election where the issues are strongly debated in a variety of media. That’s pretty much what happens here.

Advertising is a different matter.

What you need in a democracy is an open and informed election where the issues are strongly debated in a variety of media. That’s pretty much what happens here.

Like with NATO membership, where the “discussion” alternates between politicians declaring that the issue is not to be discussed, or that it “must be discussed” (whatever the hell that means).

Politicians and the media are yelling about the issue all the time, but I don’t recall anyone ever making an attempt at a serious discussion of the pros and cons. It’s all a big joke. The story of Matti&Suski has more political substance.

Like with NATO membership, where the “discussion” alternates between politicians declaring that the issue is not to be discussed, or that it “must be discussed” (whatever the hell that means).

Exactly! It’s so frustrating, makes me want to pull my hair out. It’s not long ago when Tuomioja told people to stop discussing it, as it “confuses Finnish foreign policy” or something like that. WTF!? It seems that the young radical Eki has turned into a quite conservative old geezer, just like those he used to rebel against. Sad.

“Isn’t kokoomus the party of civil servants and white collar slaves? ”

Yep, considering the “union recommended candidates” of my wimp, high-jumping, somersault-at-demand-throwing white collar slave union seem to be mostly from Kokoomus, I guess that’s the case. But traditionally, the evil capitalist makes the white collar slave to do his dirty work anyway, so why not in politics.

There’s nothing new or “American-style” about Katainen’s comments and in fact the National Coalition’s current campaign is quite mild-mannered in comparison to historical examples (in Finnish). It’s just that Heinäluoma, like Lipponen before him, appears to have a ridiculously thin skin. (I’d speculate that it comes from his enormous sense of entitlement, but that would be mudslinging.)

Phil:

“The same goes for Finnish TV commercials and print advertisements, you rarely if ever see “Our service is better than XYZ company” or “Our products are THIS price while XYZ company has THAT price”. Finnish consumers would frown upon those types of advertisements, it would have an adverse effect. Those types of tactics won’t work here…yet.”

What really is yor message here? That we WILL – in time – become ROBOTs like in the U.S. or what? Is this what you hope or fear?

Phil, whe dont you write an artible about the “hillybillies” of the Finnish elections. They are Frederik, Veltto Virtanen and Harri Jaskari!! Ask them to the radio show if you have such and this would mean great time for listeners!!! For example ask Harri, where did you meet your whore? Did she performed any striptease to your before hard porn!! Question to Frederik, why did you use baseball maila(?) in your pants during the concert?? Heh, plenty of funny things with those guys!!! Frederik’s website http://www.frederik.fi what’s harri jaskaris or Veltto’s I dont know!!

Could it be possible for man like Harri Jaskari to go ahead with elections In America, hardly????????

Could it be possible for man like Harri Jaskari to go ahead with elections In America, hardly????????

I don’t know, perhaps he should’ve driven drunk instead. It seems that being convicted of DUI is a prerequisite for any kind of success in the USA.

#4 Answering to myself. Heck, I predicted (not much of a feat) the style of SAK campaign correctly, but it was the Federation of Finnish Enterprises, that got pissed-off, not Kokoomus (national coalition) party.