15 minutes, 17 parties
The Political Constitution of the Republic of Chile
legitimized the status of Augusto Pinochet. The President of the Republic was
nominated for 8 years and a plebiscite was scheduled in 1988. However, the
possibility of plebiscite seemed extremely low. Bowing to the international
pressure, Pinochet schedules the plebiscite on 5 of October 1988 with 27 days
of campaign. The opposition was given exactly 15 minutes per day on the TV. In
normal circumstances, the opposition could lose; in the Pinochet’s Chile the
opposing figures could be murdered…
The film starts on the eve of the plebiscite. The
majority opinion is that opposition is destined to fail: poorly organized,
afraid of the military and, most of all, not believing in a possibility of
victory. René Saavedra thinks that the victory is possible. He devises a
radical campaign plan by devising Coca-Colesque campaign, targeted on the middle
class – Pinochet base, the youth and the potential absentees. René Saavedra
wipes out almost all politics from the campaign and brings together the
opposition under one rainbow.
Modern sociologists and philosophers have written the
innumerable number of pages on the consumer society, especially on willingness
to surrender the political rights for the sake of preserving their preferred lifestyle.
Symbolically, the first scene depicts showing of an advertisement of a soda
called Free. The concept of this ad is that youth fairly satisfied with fictional
liberty, music and riot.
A political campaign always aims on the hidden fears.
The Pinochet campaign tries to bully voters by claiming that opposition would bring
back the socialism and promises the bloodless dictatorship. At the same time,
the opposition achieves the impossible – selling to the consumers the ideas of
freedom and liberty under a disguise of a Coca-Colesque campaign and mobilize «the
great silent majority».
One of the critics said, if one should really
celebrate the moment that political activism turned into marketing. I say that,
if advertising helped to achieve the great goat, than the film, depicting «The
victory of Coca-Cola over dictatorship», deserves a very high mark.
8/10
