Week of 8/30-9/3, Post 1

transit political advertising, outside of a bus stop in Uppsala city center, viewed on 8/22/10

Since I do not know the language yet, I attempted to roughly translate the words on the ad through google and got a good idea of the message coming across.

This advertisement specifically aims to expose an important member of Swedish leadership. Although I am not familiar with exactly his position in Swedish politics right now or any of the current events related to him, I can assume that intended audience is middle to low class citizens who assumingly ride the bus often. Those effected by unemployment or the tough economy are going to notice this advertisement. Through my experience so far, a lot of students who are a few years older than college students are coming back to school this fall due to lack of job openings. Sweden also has a good incentive program for staying in school by paying its students a sum each month and allowing them to pay back only part of that upon graduation. This particular situation gives unemployed students the opportunity for a comfortable lifestyle if they choose to further their education. This advertisement gives hope for the situation of the economy and for those students in the limbo situation by exposing this person as a reason for the problem and suggesting that by voting a certain way in the upcoming elections, perhaps things can change and students can move out of their current standing. This shows how living in a welfare state effects elections. The strategy used is really working with the large picture of a face and a bold statement to follow it up underneath. It is simple to understand the message and there is not any additional contemplation required by the viewer. This can be related to the Larsson series that are popular right now with exposing crimes and wrongdoings in society very boldly by printing them for all to see and waiting for a reaction. Perhaps the modern idea of addressing problems in this area of the world is to expose them naked to the public to shock them- ultimately causing a reaction.