Trucks with Loudspeakers
March 19th, 2008 by MarkFor the last several days, I’ve been woken up by an obnoxious blaring sound coming from just outside my window. A “colorful feature” of Taiwanese life is to blame– trucks with loudspeakers that drive around just to get their message out. Back when I lived in Guishan, these trucks were around all the time. Trucks with loudspeakers telling me to buy their dumplings, trucks with loudspeakers offering to fix my windows, trucks with loudspeakers advertising new products, and trucks with loudspeakers for just about anything else I didn’t want to hear about.
My current residence doesn’t seem to have too many. Maybe it’s because I live near 101 in a more developed area where people don’t tolerate the noise pollution, or maybe it’s because they’re illegal. In any case, they’re rare enough that I decided to go downstairs and check it out this morning. Amazingly, the offending truck in question was campaigning for the political election. It was all decked out in campaign slogans and it was telling everyone who to vote for and why.
This doesn’t amaze me because it’s so obnoxious. What’s amazing is that it must work. They wouldn’t do it otherwise. The thing I have to wonder is, what kind of people would be positively influenced to vote for someone who sends those trucks around?
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March 19th, 2008 at 1:15 pm
They do it because they think it works. Whether it’s effective or not isn’t so easy to determine. It depends on so many factors.
It’s probably cheaper than other forms of advertising / marketing which probably sways their decision a lot.
March 19th, 2008 at 4:14 pm
A week ago, there was a KMT truck parked on the other side of the lake across from our building, blaring its message. It was mid-afternoon, so our 15 month old daughter’s regular nap was being interrupted. My wife calls the KMT campaign headquarters in Taipei City, explains the situation, and tells her location, and asks them to do something about it if they truly value her vote. The guy at the other end of the line was polite and asked for ten minutes. Of course my wife was skeptical, but 6 minutes later, the truck’s blaring abruptly stopped and it drove away!
March 28th, 2008 at 4:07 am
I’ve thought about this type of thing before, too. I thought it might be a psychological thing. When it comes time to vote (or buy a brand of product, etc.), one might choose a more familiar name. If you’ve seen a name many times, you might be more comfortable with it.
As Matt Ball has said in the past, decisions are sometimes made based on emotion, not logic.
Along the same lines, if someone is not leaning one way very strongly, maybe “50,000,000 Elvis fans can’t be wrong” can persuade them.
March 28th, 2008 at 4:25 am
Good to hear from you, old buddy. It must be something like that, or else obnoxious politicians wouldn’t keep rising to the top all over the world. I’m kind of amazed that KMT truck was so courteous to Maoman’s sleeping infant, to be serious.
March 28th, 2008 at 2:53 pm
you’re all looking at this backasswards: if a candidate doesn’t use these trucks, it just shows he is a poor politician. If his own supporters aren’t willing to raise a ruckus for him, why should he get my vote? (that is the psychology of the Taiwanese voter). The more 熱鬧, the more effective a politician people think he is.
April 1st, 2008 at 3:52 am
It’s all about the name recognition