Consultant and political analyst, Mathieu Slama works for several media, notably Le Figaro and Le Huffington Post. He has published
The War of the Worlds, Reflections on Putin's Crusade Against the West
, (ed. De Fallois, 2016).
We must recognize in Emmanuel Macron a certain stubbornness in his desire to seek the youth vote for 2022. The staging around the pass culture of 300 euros for all 18-year-olds was very revealing in this regard, Macron multiplying for the occasion the nods to youth through references to manga, series or video games and through a presence on all the media that young people love: Twitter, TikTok and even a story on Instagram in the form survey, a classic process for influencers to “create engagement” with their community. Macron even used, in his communication, a coded language by employing the term “exploration battalion”, thus implicitly referring to the very popular manga “Attack on Titan” which is a hit with young people.
But the president-influencer offensive did not stop there. We were indeed entitled to the famous video long announced with the humorous youtubers McFly and Carlito, the result of a challenge launched by the president to influencers around barrier gestures. This video has just been published, and has created quite an incredible craze if we are to believe the number of views which continues to climb at a record rate. This video, which features a competition of anecdotes, is interspersed with a few surprises, such as a call to Kylian MBappé (which obviously is not spontaneous) and a private metal concert organized in the gardens of the Élysée. A video of pure entertainment, therefore, overall quite painful to watch, typical of the kind of content offered by these youtubers whoseaudience, which often exceeds one million views per video, is considerable. Macron seems rather at ease, even if we feel a kind of embarrassment at certain times in the face of the heaviness of his interlocutors and the absurdity of certain situations.
This video is unprecedented in the history of political communication.
It is therefore anything but anecdotal, and says something serious about the way in which power now considers communication and political function today.
This video says something serious about the way in which power now views communication and political function
Mathieu slama
Let us first note that this type of communication operation is a habitual thing in the world of companies and agencies. This is called, in communication, an “activation”, which consists of forming partnerships on a particular theme with popular influencers, with the aim of creating as much “engagement” as possible, that is to say to reach the widest possible audience and to increase the possibilities of reactions and interactions with the target audience. In other words, the Élysée's communication teams (many of whom, it should be noted, come from communication agencies and companies) designed the operation with McFly and Carlito in exactly the same way they would have it. considered for a business. The politician is now a leaderbusiness like any other, and political communication must therefore adapt to this new factor.
Read also: McFly and Carlito: who is Ultra Vomit, the metal group that performed in front of Emmanuel Macron at the Élysée?
This appropriation, by politicians, of marketing techniques from the private world is not new, but it has never been more obvious than under the five-year term of Emmanuel Macron. This is hardly surprising, since macronism is itself an appropriation of politics by the world of business and management. Macronists are for many former executives in the private sector, communicators, business leaders who perfectly master the codes of management and marketing. Their vision of politics is a purely managerial vision. No one at the Elysee Palace has wondered if the President of the Republic really had his place in this type of operation. No one questioned the political message it sent. Finally, no onethe question is asked of the ethical issues that such a strategy raised. The only question that arose was this: is it effective? Will this allow us to increase our reserve of voices among young people? Will such a video allow us to talk, create commitment and therefore capture media attention, especially on social networks? A vision of purely utilitarian politics, dominated by marketing thinking that divides the electorate into targets that must be addressed separately, without any regard for considerations such as the general interest or the dignity of the office.to increase our reserve of voices among young people? Will such a video allow us to talk, create commitment and therefore capture media attention, especially on social networks? A vision of purely utilitarian politics, dominated by marketing thinking that divides the electorate into targets that must be addressed separately, without any regard for considerations such as the general interest or the dignity of the office.to increase our reserve of voices among young people? Will such a video allow us to talk, create commitment and therefore capture media attention, especially on social networks? A vision of purely utilitarian politics, dominated by marketing thinking that divides the electorate into targets that must be addressed separately, without any regard for considerations such as the general interest or the dignity of the office.without any regard for considerations such as the general interest or the dignity of the office.without any regard for considerations such as the general interest or the dignity of the office.
A vision of purely utilitarian politics, dominated by marketing thinking that divides the electorate into targets that must be addressed separately
Mathieu slama
This marketing approach to politics has its corollary: depoliticization, which is also one of the markers of the Macron presidency. With this video, the Élysée leaves the political space to place itself solely in the field of entertainment and spectacle. McFly and Carlito are certainly very talented in their field, but they are devoid of any political culture and therefore unable to oppose the president in any political contradiction. Consequently, they make themselves the useful idiots of macronism and its strategy, letting themselves be trapped by a communication operation which is in reality extremely political, since it is a question of campaigning among young people for the election. 2022. Macron knows it, the 25-34 year old majority vote today National Assembly,while the 18-24 are hesitating between Macron, Mélenchon and abstention. There is therefore a huge reservoir of voices to go and recover.
It is possible that part of the public watching this video, not necessarily very politicized, will stop at the impression of sympathy that emerges from the character Macron and possibly say that yes, why not vote for him in 2022 It is no longer a question here of political communication but of propaganda, even manipulation. That entertainment is today an essential component of the political spectacle, no one disputes it and this is not Macron's fault. The program Touche Pas à Mon Poste, presented by Cyril Hanouna, is now very popular with the macronia, several figures participate regularly. But at least at Hanouna's, the LREM ministers or parliamentarians who speak face them with interlocutors who are members of theopposition that can contradict them on the political ground. In other words, even on TPMP, we still remain in the field of politics. With this video, we move on to something else entirely, and a milestone is reached in the depoliticization of political speech.
A milestone has been reached in the depoliticization of political speech
Mathieu slama
This strategy is all the more reprehensible as the political stakes around youth are immense today.
The precariousness of young people is growing in a very worrying way, the generalization of "distancing" at university has had disastrous effects on the training and morale of students, and confinements and curfews have caused psychological disasters that are still difficult to overcome. measure all gravity.
Neither the pass' culture nor Macron's video with influencers respond to these challenges.
There were also other ways of addressing young people. To consider that this is the only way to reach young people is in a way to express a form of contempt for them. Today in France there is a committed and politicized youth, and a youth that is undoubtedly less politicized but who has the means to understand the issues they face without needing McFly and Carlito to speak to them. . Macron's strategy is not only ethically questionable, it is also deeply contemptuous of young people. Today, there are talented influencers on the right as well as on the left who popularize political subjects and which interest a wide audience. Hugo Décrypte or Jean Massiet for the most consensual,Usul or Tatania Ventôse for the most controversial: the choice is not lacking. If the President of the Republic really wanted to address the youth in the political field, then a debate with these interlocutors would have made sense. The anecdote video did not do justice to politics, influencers and youth.
To consider that this is the only way to reach young people is in a way to express a form of contempt for young people.
Mathieu slama
Finally, it is difficult not to say a word of conclusion on what this video represents for the presidential office, and therefore for France. At the start of his mandate, Macron embarked on what could be called a reform of the presidential image, attempting to restore prestige, height, distance and rarity to the office. The president represents France and all French people, and therefore he cannot act like any minister or parliamentarian. Hence this idea, in which Macron seemed to believe, to give back symbolic force to the office, to be more solemn, rarer and therefore less omnipresent than his predecessors who had governed like Prime Ministers rather than Presidents. . But Macron betrayed this promise during his tenure, untilto this incredible communication operation which will mark, let us be sure, a historical precedent in our contemporary political history.
What can be said, in fact, of a video in which the interlocutors of the Head of State begin to dance or roll, address him as if he were a guest like any other? What about this final concert sequence, where the rockers start screaming, facing Macron,
"The Elysee is what you are there?" ?
What about the many advertisements that intersect the video, as if a video featuring the head of state were similar to any other monetized influencer video? What to say, finally, of this sequence where the head of state lets out a
"whore"
? This is perhaps the most serious, this idea that the president is now an influencer like any other, that politics is no longer a separate space, and that it is now possible, for the head of the State, to commit in such a demeaning and vulgar video.
