Jerry Fan gives Lien new look

Taipei Times: Although it has been one year since the presidential election, KMT Chairman Lien Chan (連戰) and President Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁) are still seen as competitors in the political arena. Having once been Chen's image consultant, how does that experience of being in the green camp facilitate your ability to update the image of the blue camp's leader?

Jerry Fan (范可欽): This is not an easy question to answer, because you look at me as someone who has leaped from the green camp to the blue camp.

However, the way I perceive my shift is that these two political heavyweights, though still competitors, have gone through a reversal of their political roles.

Therefore, as the factors that contribute to their fierce competition vary, I don't relate my advertising strategies in the DPP camp to those in the KMT camp or vice versa.

To me, participating in KMT camp campaigning is a totally independent experience. Times have changed. We have done a lot of homework to come up new strategies [for Lien] that have nothing to do with Chen.

Besides, professionally speaking, our relationship as an image consultant with either Chen or Lien is simply contractual. Plus, our contract with Chen ended last March.

TT: Even so, given the fact that you had worked on Chen's political charisma so thoroughly, you must have discovered at least some of Chen's weak points that you can now turn into targets for Lien to use in negative campaigning.

Fan: If, hypothetically, I get the chance to join Lien's presidential campaign in three years, I may stand at such a vantage point, and then we can discuss negative campaigning.　As of now, it's still too early to say because we've only produced two commercials for Lien.

What we've tried to present in these was simply the strategic correlation between the KMT's reforms and consumers' economic concerns [about DPP rule], thereby making the election for chairman more than just the KMT's internal business.

TT: Since you mentioned the strategic thinking behind the ads, one thing that particularly strikes me is that you seem to have targeted all voters instead of just KMT members. Isn't the slogan -- "The KMT has to make a good showing so that the hard times can pass (國民黨要爭氣,苦日子才會過去)" -- used in the ads meant to attack the DPP government?

Fan: [Laughing] This is very politically sensitive question. I can only say that our client [the KMT] is delighted to see that the result is a provocative one.

They would prefer to see [the election] as not just about the KMT's chairmanship but about the negative impact triggered by the transfer of power.

However, when we were working on production, we aimed to reach out only to KMT members and to those former party members who are no longer in contact with the party. That was our main purpose.

But if we can influence non-KMT members, such as supporters of the People First Party and the New Party, that would be good, too.

TT: Some academics have argued that the style you utilize in Lien's commercials is "DPP style." For example, Lien was never a street fighter wearing a red band around his head, as he is shown in your commercials. What's your reaction to this?

Fan: We will never take advantage of the way we portrayed A-bian to refresh Lien's image, because Lien and Chen are two very different people with different backgrounds, personalities and mannerisms.