Orbánists wanted to show the Boss that they can totally talk to young people. So they launched an influencer campaign.
Turns out, influencers can be bought. Actual influence can not.
After the 2019 municipal election defeat the new enemy target was announced: youth. Orbán pours uncounted billions into media that targets the petulant young voters whose support he is not enjoying. With predictable results.
Orbán has zombified origo.hu a long time ago. It went from the #2 news site of the country to churning out shrill propaganda 24/7. Its new workers (don’t call them journalists) wanted to answer the call of The Boss and launched an influencer campaign. They shouldn’t have.
They bought a few young Instagram stars with a large following who posted the first gram, reading origo.hu on their phones, warning of more #OrbánSponsored content to come. That incensed their followers who took advantage of the unfortunate hashtag choice of the campaign #ÚjatMutatunk (we are showing something new), which is dangerously close to #UjjatMutatunk (we are giving the finger).
You see where this is going, right?
Reactions from fans. (Images from 444.hu)
Analysts pointed out that it was a stupid idea to being with to buy off influencers who had nothing to do with politics before and expect their fans to follow uncritically.
It is always a stillborn idea to try to look cool before kids. Ask any embarrassing dad. The same stands for politicians – only they are not even beloved to begin with.
Now let us see if hosting the MTV awards and gamer events will turn ungrateful youth into sheep proud to follow whoever is the strongest.
And finally, this is what a want-to-look-like-youth campaign looks like. Phone glued to her hands, baseball cap turn around, checked shirt, youthful smile #embarrassed
