'Stickers', TikTok and WhatsApp: Ebrard's campaign is unleashed on networks

Mexican Foreign Minister Marcelo Ebrard with his dog Luna, in a photo posted on social networks on June 17, 2022. Marcelo Ebrard (RR.SS.)

The first step, in the

manual , is to change the profile photo.

This is known from the famous sponsored up to the eyebrows, to the teenager who has just created an account on Instagram.

The Mexican foreign minister, Marcelo Ebrard, an unexpected candidate to populate the ranks of the viral world, was the first thing he did after his name resonated as one of Morena's possible candidates to govern Mexico in 2024. A smiling photo with his wife, Rosalind Bueso.

And let the

run .

The serious and calculating gesture of the foreign secretary, former head of government of the capital and trusted man of the president, is a thing of the past.

have sneaked into his office

and even TikTok.

Ebrard surrenders to viral fury in the face of bewilderment about how he is going to keep the networks on fire for two more years.

The formula is not new.

Mexico observed with the same doses of stupor and embarrassment how the strategy worked better than any rally in the state and local elections last year, better than any campaign program, pantries and promises of public lighting.

Mariana Rodríguez, the wife of the governor of Nuevo León, Samuel García, designed a close and funny politician from her account with thousands of followers.

She was an expert.

The memes, the

, and the

of her relationship and her career with the Government became the key to success that dozens of other candidates tried to imitate.

They were late.

The cell phones of Mexicans a year ago were filled with TikTok videos of the candidates, coming out of a coffin, dancing in an uncoordinated way, making a fool of themselves.

And everything indicates that the 2024 presidential race will not free them from memes, jokes, more dances and whatever it takes.

Because to gain the trust of the people these days, according to the campaign managers, it is not only necessary to knock door by door, neighborhood by neighborhood and fight for the vote, it is also very necessary that people laugh.

The chancellor was probably the candidate who least fit this mold of the viral.

Few would have described the man with the vaccines, the negotiator of the diplomatic crisis with the United States, the visible face of the immigration tragedy on the border, and the president's strongman who replaced him at diplomatic events, as the new national joke.

And it is possible that this contradiction between the classic image of him and the one he offers these days, is the icing on the cake of a campaign that no one expected.

Until now, his

—as those in the know say—, that is, his social media posts, featured little more than his tedious meetings with foreign leaders.

The typical protocol photo of a handshake with the Qatari ambassador, a press release, the list of participants in a forum on climate change, condolences to the family of a friendly official.

Some will say that it all started with a clumsy

with his dog on Friday, with a

in the purest

style directed by his wife to congratulate "the dads" on Father's Day.

Others, that it was with the

of this Monday.

So, misspelled, maybe on purpose.

That the foreign minister's cell phone number circulated on social networks this Monday has triggered his image more than any public event, such as the one he starred in this Sunday in Guadalajara.

“5515025360 my what's up to be communicated.

If they want to send a message, I'll read them.

Good week!!” Ebrard posted early.

And Twitter has been filled with screenshots of people who really want to laugh with the applicant, and at him.

WhatsApp has become a trend.

And he, in the new face of the old policy, trying to get closer to the younger ones as if she were his uncle in a family group.

Friendly, clumsy and close, none of these adjectives would have described the chancellor a few months ago.

Ebrard's irruption on networks has occurred while his main rival in the party, the head of government of the capital, Claudia Sheinbaum, was on the canvas, isolated by coronavirus.

And there the chancellor has marked a

to the right: a last video where he recounts the success that his messages have had and how busy he is answering them.

A

of his Secretary's office, like the one celebrities do on Instagram when they go on paid vacation.

And also, but less importantly, that he is preparing a meeting that he hardly remembers the name of, which turns out to have to do with migration and development in Central America.

“If it takes me a while [to respond to messages], bear with me,” he says.

There has been one more unexpected twist: this Monday afternoon Ebrard announced that he had been infected with covid-19.

And shortly after, Sheinbaum discovered Facebook Live.

The head of government left her confinement just as her opponent entered.

And he has decided to come back with another video showing the corners of his apartment in Tlalpan: "the balcony", "my little plants", "small apartment", "small dining room", "small housing unit".

And as a climax, she has been encouraged to play the guitar, no concert, just four chords while she remembered how her parents took her to classes as a child and remembers the basics thanks to YouTube.

The only one who has so far remained firm in his traditional method of campaigning has been Adán Augusto López, Secretary of the Interior.

From the same party and with the same interests of governing the country ahead of the 2024 presidential elections, he has decided to stay away from the Twitter maelstrom.

At least for now.

Ebrard, as a new

, has the challenge of selling his day-to-day as Secretary of Foreign Affairs on networks.

López Obrador's meeting in Washington with Joe Biden or the future of the humanitarian crisis on the border do not usually have many

, for many

, and

that he manages.

Gone is the dialectical battle over the possible responsibility of one and the other in the construction and maintenance of a subway line that collapsed and claimed the lives of 26 people.

There will always be networks, memes, Instagram filters.

And the dances, which have not yet started, but are expected.

You will always have TikTok.

subscribe here

to the

of EL PAÍS México and receive all the informative keys of the current affairs of this country