Cool Bleiben

In a German election campaign that has been relentlessly dull and unfailingly insipid; in which the biggest news story – seriously – was Social Democratic candidate Peer Steinbrück being photographed raising his middle finger in "Sagen Sie jetzt nichts" ("Don't Say Anything," a photojournalistic series in which public figures are asked to respond to questions using only expressions and gestures, no words); in an election season where everyone I've talked to, regardless of political affiliation, believes the challenger is a terrible candidate and the incumbent is guaranteed to win; in which the entire city is drenched in posters and billboards bearing candidates' faces, but no one seems to be talking about any actual issues, here's one of the very few things that at least struck me as clever:

 It says, basically, "Keep calm and elect the chancellor" (but with the feminine form of "chancellor," so it's clear it means Merkel) and plays on both the ubiquitous "Keep Calm and Carry On" cultural meme and Merkel's iconic, omnipresent hand gesture. (The latter has provided endless fuel for fun, for example here.)

I just assumed the "Cool bleiben" poster was a spoof by someone else, that no one within Merkel's Christian Democratic Union would be creative or culturally savvy enough to have come up it, but it turns out it was actually created by the Junge Union, the CDU's youth organization. Well done, Junge Union.


Incidentally, I think this is my new favorite parody version of "Keep Calm and Carry On."


Incidentally incidentally, Steinbrück's middle finger has also led to endless photo-manipulation fun.


Incidentally incidentally incidentally (tying all these threads together), I also saw a pretty great image that juxtaposed the various "Sagen Sie jetzt nichts" pictures of Steinbrück, gesticulating wildly in response to the various questions the journalist asked him, with the same number of pictures of Merkel, captioned with the same questions but with every one of the pictures being an identical shot of Merkel with her implacable expression and characteristically interlaced hands. Can't seem to track that image down again, though...