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A Danish politician undertook an innovative action to advertise his election campaign: an ad on PornHub.
Joachim B. Olsen, a center-right Liberal Alliance party MP, told users to “Når du er færdig med at gokke, så stem på Jokke,” (When you’re done “throwing dice,” go vote for Jokke). Jokke is his nickname.
“Yes, it’s me on PornHub. And no, there are no big thoughts behind it – I just hope you get a good laugh. There must also be room for all the serious political messages.”
Olsen, a former Olympic shot putter now standing in the country’s upcoming general election, said while he realized that the streaming porn site was an unusual place to campaign, it was one that had potential.
The Liberal Alliance’s spokesperson said that it is one of the more untraditional platforms for an election ad. But it apparently had great potential.
“You have to go out everywhere, and then we thought it might be fun to make an ad on Pornhub. So half of the internet is porn. And you have to be where the voters are. Also on a porn site.”
When asked if he thought he would get votes by advertising on a porn site, his response was the following:
“I think mostly, it’s a fun feature. My campaign is 95 percent serious, and then there is room for a fun feature. I also think that should be the case in a long election campaign.”
And, of course, campaign funds were used for the advert since seldom anything in the world is free, as Olsen admitted himself.
Responding to a question about expectations of who might vote for him after the campaign, Olsen said that he just hoped people would get a laugh out of it more than anything.
“Well, I hope people get a good laugh. I have received a very positive response to it. It’s smashed in with text messages today. People really think it’s fun. I don’t know if there are votes in it. But if you can make people laugh and not always be so self-absorbed, then that’s fine.”
Of course, some people were outraged, Olsen had a response to that, too.
“I am well aware that some people are outraged. One cannot say anything today without people being outraged. I don’t take that very hard. Those who know me as a politician, they know I’m a serious politician. But I also have humor. And I think this is fun.”
Naturally, people on social media also commented on the campaign.
Joachim B. Olsen-reklamer på PornHub giver god mening. Intet skriger “Liberal Alliance” som en hjemmeside fyldt med mennesker, der bare gerne vil tilfredsstille sig selv.
— Casper Kofod (@casperkofod) May 12, 2019
“Nothing screams ‘Liberal Alliance’ [like] a site filled with people who just want to satisfy themselves.”
As per its own data, Pornhub receives 100 million visits every day and Denmark is the 28th highest source of traffic to the site. Nearly three-quarters of its Danish users are men.
Danish elections will take place on June 5th.
The advertisement decision, fun and all, is an example of the current state of society and the stark polarization between conservative and liberal world views. The globalization and the mass communications mostly manage to make those differences starker, rather than remove them.
