National elections in Norway are this September, and clearly there’s going to be more playful use of social media this time around. The latest I’ve seen is a Twitter account spitting out “facts” about Monica Mæland, a conservative politician who is the Chief Commissioner (byrådsleder) in Bergen.

Probably these are not exactly new jokes either:
– “Once Monica Mæland made a Happy Meal cry”
– “Every time Monica Mæland doesn’t get her way, a unicorn is born.”
– “If you Google “Chuck Norris” it says “did you mean Monica Mæland?”

While slightly amusing, I doubt this is going to win any elections. A bunch of (lets admit it) mean jokes with no actual political content – other than to claim that Monica Mæland is scary and gets whatever she wants – aren’t going to convince anyone to change their vote. At most, they might make people who are already committed to a political view laugh or be annoyed and perhaps share them with friends. I suppose conceivably it might get more people to actually vote and be involved in the elections. Perhaps you would laugh at is and en decide to go and find out what Monica Mæland actually stands for and has done. I’m looking forwards to seeing more political content in these ads, though. The Hey Girl Audun Lysbakken have more of that, although they’ve sort of declined after the first couple of days.