I’m not really into politics. In fact, I’ve had my trust broken for oh-so-many times by the politicians I used to admire. However, if you’ve been following me on Instagram, you might’ve known that last Sunday I somehow joined a campaign program held by a candidate who is running for the mayorship in next month’s election. The program was a kind of The Amazing Race called GARARETEK (Game Amazing Race Ngangge Teknologi). We got to run around the city, solving riddles and racing against time whilst uploading pictures through Twitpic and this app.
The general idea behind the game was actually new and creative. It was a good and out-of-the-box idea for a political campaign. I like how they used technology effectively for the campaign. (FYI, campaign programs in Indonesia usually consist of dangdut music events where the candidates give a statement in one occasion. But the program itself mostly consists of singing and dancing.) However, there were also some things I need to highlight here.
First, the use of text message to deliver the clues of our next destination. Let’s be honest here: no one uses text message nowadays, when the number of chatting apps increases every day. I’m quite sure that the carriers pay less attention to the text message services compared to data connection services. For an event which had the word technology on its name, the use of text message was understandably questionable. Why used text message? There were some groups that couldn’t finish the race just because they didn’t receive their clues at all. What a shame.
Second, it was clearly seen that the committee didn’t prepare the event quite well. It looked as if they prepared it in only four or five days. The rules and guidelines for the game were confusing and unclear. Also, the participants were told that each of us would be given a voucher, but then they told us that the voucher couldn’t be given that day. We had to come back the next day to get it. I still haven’t had mine today because I’m too lazy to go back and pick it up. In my opinion, they should have had the voucher on their hand before the event.
But above all those matters, I still think that this event was a good campaign program. This is how a campaign program should be: creative and standing out of the rest.