Catalonia’s orgasmic politics

“Votar és un plaer” (voting is a pleasure) reads the sign at the end of an electoral campaign ad by the Young Socialists in Catalonia, a group within Spain’s Socialist Party. It’s such a pleasure, apparently, that it ends in orgasm. The video, in fact, features a young woman becoming progressively aroused as she approaches the ballot box—and reaching climax upon slipping in her vote. The aim was to “show how important it is that all young people in Catalonia go to the polls,” the authors of the clip, released ahead of this month’s regional elections, told El País newspaper.

Unsurprisingly, the ad caused a stir among Spanish politicians on both the right and the left, who called it “crude,” “misleading,” and an “attack on the dignity of women.”  But many among the Spanish public were unfazed. “References to sex, as is logical, sell,” quipped El País in a separate article. And the Young Socialists’ video isn’t the first message in this campaign to use erotica to turn on the voting. Another candidate, Montse Nebrera, who heads her own party, went on camera wrapped in just a towel: “If we were seeking a media sensation I would take it off,” she said, “but we don’t think everything should be politics.”