Arrives spends half a million euros on posters spread across the country
The arrival launched the discussion around the electoral posters with a billboard that places Luís Montenegro side by side with José Sócrates. On top, in Bottles, the phrase: « 50 years of corruption. It’s time to say enough. » The comparison did not fit well to the still Prime Minister, who tries to recover from the controversy around the Spinumviva family business, founded by herself and now led by her children: Montenegro decided to play a precautionary action against the arrival to compel the party to withdraw the posters.
Already André Ventura ripined with a video on his social networks where he recalls a poster of the Democratic Alliance, released on January 24 last year, after the resignation of António Costa, with the phrase: « corruption and lack of ethics. You can no longer continue. »
«During the election campaign, AD was very concerned about corruption and lack of ethics in politics. Now, in the face of serious suspicions, they avoid giving explanations and escape their responsibilities. Just watch the irony! ”Said the leader of arrives in the shared video.
In addition to refusing to remove the poster, the arrival has already put a new one on the streets, this time with the faces of Luís Montenegro, José Sócrates, Pedro Nuno Santos and Ricardo Salgado.
The strategy is not new. In 2023, the arrival spread posters through various locations in the country with the phrase “Portugal needs a cleaning”, accompanied by the silhouettes of figures such as Ricardo Salgado, José Sócrates, António Costa and Fernando Medina, marked with a red cross.
This ping pong of accusations well shows the impact of poster use as a political weapon-especially in the context of election campaign.
How much is a billboard worth? And 500?
From this month, the streets begin to fill the traditional giant scores with the faces of the list heads of each party and Sonante slogans. It is Countdown for May Legislatures and the Voting War.
Of course, as in any war, there are costs. The arrival is among the most spent on posters: each one costs on average 1,000 euros. The party has 500 billboards spread across the country, confirmed the party’s head of the sun’s birth, which means a total cost of at least 500,000 euros.
Despite having a larger party machine, the PSD spends only about 98 euros per poster. With a network of 450 billboards across the country totals a spending of 44,100 euros on posters, not to mention the monthly rental amount of the structures.
The abysmal difference of values is partly justified by the fact that the posters of the arrival are made in canvas-a more expensive material-while the PSD are of paper.
The PS did not confirm the current values to our newspaper, but in the 2024 election campaign spent 473,000 euros for posters. We also questioned the liberal initiative, which refused to publicize the information.
In a campaign period, expenditure spending is limited. Only 25 % of the subsidy for electoral campaigns can be channeled for expenses with the conception, production and postering of structures, posters and screens on the public road, according to the party financing law.
The Formula for the Perfect Poster
Passing the Campo Pequeno Bull Square it is impossible to be indifferent to one of several posters around it: a bed undone and next to the sentence, « bullfighting only in bed (and with consent). » The tone is humorous and provocative, but the political message is there. And it’s serious: the anti-gide pane.
Liberal Ainiciative is another of the parties known for using humor and informal and provocative language in your posters, but it doesn’t always go well. By 2020, IL put a billboard in Oeiras with the question « would you trust your home accounts to this man? » Beside it was, nothing more, nothing less than the face of the mayor of Oeiras, Isaltino Morais, to smoke a Godfather -style cigar. The reach of the message was short, as the poster was withdrawn at night without notice.
For communication and marketing expert Edson Athaíde, this type of communication is « schizophrenic ». «There are parties that are super serious in Parliament and then on the street they want to be fun. From the moment they take place in Parliament, there must be a suitability in communication. They cannot ask people a seriousness, which they themselves do not have, ”he says.
Already Ricardo Pais Oliveira, director of strategy and communication of the IL campaign, disagree. «There is only information when communication is different from expected. Communication has to have the ability to surprise, have fun, inform, even shock, that is, inject something you subscribe into the collective psyche, ”he argues.
While young parties, such as IL, PAN or arrival, are not afraid to risk satirical and bold posters, traditional parties such as the PSD and PS remain trapped in past formulas. For the director of the IL campaign, these parties « have no personality in communication ».
On the other hand, Edson Athaíde explains that « usually the parties of power, the majority parties, often have a more institutional and neutral language, because they cannot scare the average of society, nor communicate in a divisive form. »
The formula is simple and poorly changed: the face of the head-to-head occupies most of the poster, next to it, a short phrase in the party letters and the party’s logo. The colors used are those of the party or the national colors.
«If we compare the PSD and PS posters with the posters of 10/20 years ago, they have hardly changed. There was a poster from a politician (António Costa) with the word confidence. 20 years ago there was a poster that was exactly the Rodrigues with the word ‘confidence’ beside it, ”recalls Edson, who was responsible for the PS campaign in the 1995 legislatures that made António Guterres Prime Minister.
Backstage of the Outdoor War
Before leaving the street, it is behind the scenes of the party scene that the process of creating the posters is decided. Social democrats have three designers and a communication team specifically extended for the election campaign period. In creating the contents of the posters, until the party secretary general participates and everything is validated by Luís Montenegro.
Already the arrival has a communication department of eight people, but ideas are often suggested by the party leader himself, which is also the one who has the final word, for good and for evil.
IL has the help of the Mosca Agency to execute the posters. Some ideas and conceptions are proposed by the campaign director and others by the external agency. The liberal strategy is divided into three vacancies and the first has begun. The day after the fall of the government, the posters were placed with the words “trust” and “responsibility” and the face of the party’s president, Rui Rocha. The second vacancy will have proposals and the third vacancy will be the poster of appeal to the vote “this time is liberal”.
At the same time, special posters will also be launched, of only one unit, with a very specific thematic message. IL’s campaign director advances that in the coming days a housing poster will be installed in Saldanha « that will stop traffic (which is probably already stopped there). »
