Back in the times of contested Honi Soit elections, tickets would fight tooth and nail to win the editorship of USyd’s much lauded student newspaper. While employing the usual tactics of Eastern Avenue walks and talks and chalks, or using the photocopier to produce a hot flurry of posters and flyers, Honi hopefuls sometimes resorted to more unorthodox approaches to capture voter attention. Welcome to the world of Honi Soit campaign stunts.
The last genuine Honi campaign stunt came from a likely place: a joke ticket. The year was 2018, and what could have been an uncontested breeze for favourites Spice for Honi turned into a begrudging democratic contest as they faced double-bill joke tickets Honey Soy and Pictures of Spider-Man for Honi. And Pictures of Spider-Man for Honi went all out. Campaigning on Eastern Avenue dressed as Daily Bugle EIC J. Jonah Jameson — suspenders, cigar, and moustache all present — ticket members brashly demanded pictures of Spider-Man from any and all passers by. They took it up a notch at the debate in Hermanns, where a friend of the campaign interrupted the proceedings dressed as Spider-Man and a chase ensued. Good, harmless, narrativised stuff!
That’s all expected behaviour from a joke ticket perhaps, but those sorts of shenanigans have been present in many of the more serious Honi tickets as well — perhaps a product of the evocative, one-word ticket naming convention that has dominated Honi campaigns for decades now.
2012 victors Jam for Honi famously constructed an oversized jam-red cake that accompanied the ticket on the hustings. Students were encouraged to take photos with it and even on it (“I took a photo on the Jamcitadel and lived”), making it a centrepiece of their ultimately victorious campaign. They also played musical instruments on Eastern Avenue and the Law Lawns to attract attention, live audio-blogging all their antics.
Similar set pieces featured in a number of other modern Honi campaigns as well. Zoo for Honi (2011) built a makeshift animal cage and treated Eastern Avenue as their stage for a Just Can’t Wait to be King. Sex for Honi (2013) acquired a suggestive mattress. And Evil for Honi (2013 again) created a ghoulish campaign HQ off the Law Lawns. Beat for Honi (2012) dressed a member in a polar bear costume to run up and down Eastern Avenue and blasted Azaelia Banks.
Sometimes, unoriginal campaigners would reproduce the stunts of successful forebears — but the archive remembers! In 2019, Cream for Honi littered Eastern Avenue with newspaper-looking corflutes reading: “The Daily Cream: Special Place in Hell Announced for Stupol Campaigners”. In 2015, Scoop for Honi mastered the masthead corflute: “The Daily Scoop: Satan: “Even I think student politics is unethical””.
Much of what we know about the Honi campaigns of the 2010s onwards come from their Facebook pages, WordPress sites, and the occasional YouTube channel. Invaluable resources for recollecting the history of Honi Soit campaigning, sadly many have been erased from history, likely due to the embarrassment of the candidates’ future selves.
Like all things USyd, things were a little wilder in the 90s and beyond. As current federal cabinet minister Andrew Leigh recalled in his University of Canberra ‘Challenge Your Mind’ lecture, a member of his 1992 Naked Truth ticket secured the votes of a group of medical students by streaking naked through a lecture hall (living up to the ticket name).
Perhaps less salaciously, 1991’s Headlions ticket dressed up in fuzzy lion costumes to win the hearts and minds of voters — singing their own version of The Lion Sleeps Tonight to seal the deal.
As Honi elections grow ever less competitive and the business of campaigning moves further and further online, the stunts and antics that previously electrified election season are quickly becoming extinct. In 2014, the SRC implemented rules prohibiting cross-campaigning between SRC Council/Presidential campaigns and Honi campaigns: this means that during contested elections, in-person campaigners must choose between championing a Council or Honi ticket. This regulation greatly taxed Honi campaigner numbers and inhibited unique opportunities for cross-campaigns.
After another year of uncontested Honi Soit elections, it’s easy to forget the lengths tickets would go to in their campaigns. Eastern Avenue is no longer the stage of stujo electoral theatre it once was and even the presence of Facebook has waned. But as memories of COVID fade and the campus nostalgia machine whirs up, it’s possible that Honi campaign stunts might make a comeback. Or maybe the tone and tenor of Honi elections have changed for good, a victim of the general shift to digital stumping. We hate to say it, but only time will tell.
