East Coast GRC resident compares party brochures from PAP and WP, just because

For East Coast residents, this year’s election has proven to be ‘David and Goliath’-esque and the one to watch.

The Workers’ Party’s team of Nicole Seah, Kenneth Foo, Terence Tan, Dylan Ng and Abdul Shariff Aboo Kassim is up against the People’s Action Party team led by Deputy Prime Minister Heng Swee Keat, along with Dr Maliki Osman, Jessica Tan, Cheryl Chan and new face Tan Kiat How. 

Perhaps in the spirit of irreverence amid all the seriousness, Facebook user Michael Sng posted an “unboxing” and review of the two parties’ campaign brochures.

His nine-point list is a lot to go through for something that one may argue wouldn’t make a difference in the polls, but Sng — who lists on his profile that he studied advertising and graphic design — went for it anyway. 

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Here’s a summary of the main points:

Plastic bag to protect the brochure

Sng noted that PAP’s brochure came in a plastic bag, while WP’s did not — not that he approves of single-use plastic. The good thing though, was that the brochure could be hung at the gate, "and not wedged in between", like WP's. But he noted in an update that not all PAP brochures came in a bag.

Sturdiness

The PAP’s brochure is reportedly “sturdier”, printed on higher quality paper, and Sng noted that PAP used more “pretty pictures” and a larger font size, perhaps in consideration of “the ageing population”. 

Use of resources

However, this means that PAP’s brochure has more wastage, with twice the page count at 16 pages compared to WP’s eight pages. 

WP’s brochure was also judged to be a “better use of resources”, with the messaging taking precedence over photos.

Constituency-specific messaging

PAP’s brochure was also constituency-specific, with the party’s message of “Together - We Care @ East Coast” clearly stated. 

Languages and graphics

The analysis went down to the order of languages used, with Sng pointing out that information in PAP’s brochure was laid out in the order of English, Chinese, Malay and Tamil, while WP’s listed the information in English, Malay, Chinese and Tamil.

What does this say? According to Sng, this means PAP recognises that an “overwhelming majority of voters” in the constituency are Chinese, while WP recognises that Malay is the national language. However, he notes he doesn't know if this order is specific to East Coast GRC. 

Sng then dives into the graphic design of each brochure, but there’s no clear winner.

Conclusion?

We applaud you for getting this far, but if you’d like the TL;DR version, here’s the kicker.

“PAP brochure can make more, colourful and sturdier disposable peanut shell trays,” wrote Sng. 

Guess that's what we all needed to know.

candicecai@asiaone.com