Political Marketing in Brasil

UNIVERSITY OF HRADEC KRÁLOVÉ

PHILOSOPHICAL FACULTY

RAQUEL FERREIRA DO AMARAL

POLITICAL MARKETING IN BRAZIL:

Technical and Practice Analysis

Hradec Králové

2019

Lecturer: PhDr. Mgr. Vít Šimral

Financing Political Competition (FINPOC)

Summer Semester 2019

Submitted by:

Raquel Ferreira do Amaral

E-Mail: [e-mail]

Deadline: 27th March 2019

Hradec Králové

2019

        Currently in Brazil, the study about the relationship between political marketing and financial resources acquired through financing of candidates is already consolidated and has severals of different perspectives  for analysis, during this article we will focus in the relationship based in the political science line and your concern about how is operationalized the financing of political campaigns and their possibles effects on it. For that, we will use a parameter between a technical and practical vision, using the campaign that elected the former president Lula, in 2002, and how the relationship money and marketing is essential for a successful campaign.

        Thus, it is important to understand how the current campaign financing system works in Brazil, nowadays, there are three main ways to raise funds for this purpose: donation of individuals, electoral funds and collective financing. These forms generate an unequal distribution of resources, because both donations from individuals and collective financing are linked to the visibility achieved by a given candidate, while the electoral funds are basically divided according to the number of candidates that a party already has in power, in addition to the 2% of the fund that is divided equally among all the parties registered with the Supreme Electoral Court.

        In other words, in addition to the fixed percentage, the party only achieves more financing from the reach it has of the population, or by the election of members to the government in previous elections, this is also a decisive factor when we look at the free television election schedule that the candidates have, free advertising has the function of diminishing the advantage of established candidates or those with greater resources in relation to those with scarce resources, by disengaging, even if not totally, the access to the media of economic power (MIGUEL, 2004). However, the division of time is as follows: 90% is distributed in proportion to the number of elected deputies; 10% distributed equally among all candidates, which ends up not fulfilling the main idea of ending the difference in visibility between competitors.

        From this it is possible to arrive at literature that suggests that candidates who are already in government tend to obtain more resources from private donations than opposition candidates (SAMUELS, 2001a; LEMOS, MARCELINO and PEDERIVA, 2010; MANCUSO, 2012). According to an analysis of "the effects of advertising time in conjunction with financial resources and government assessment on the vote", (BORBA ; CERVI, 2017), there is a short-term campaign-related variable that shows that the total financial resources declared in the campaign are important for the variation in percentage votes.  

        All this becomes clear when we analyze the victorious election of candidate Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva in 2002, having previously run in two presidential elections and lost, the workers' party candidate gained greater visibility in his third participation, Lula's campaign was the party's richest presidential race, reaching about thirty-five million reais (around eight million euros), where this money was invested primarily with the hiring of marketeer Duda Mendonça, stars of Brazilian journalism, such as Ricardo Kotscho, Lula's assistant, political scientist André Singer, who acted as spokesman, as well as filmmaker Paulo Caldas and other 200 people for the campaign, all of whom influence the media in Brazil.

        All this investment has a direct connection with the change in voting intention during the 2002 election period, at the time, Brazil came from a delicate moment in its politics and the population brought with it a need for change, the approval to the current Executive power was only 9%, the disapproval reached 56%, generated the search for someone capable of radically changing the situation and "saving" the country (FIGUEIREDO and COUTINHO, 2003).

        As a result, Roseana Sarney, a pre-candidate for the Liberal Front Party, emerged in the polls, using the time of free television media to present an image of a modern woman, sensitive to social problems and with high approval of the population of Maranhão to his management, daughter of a former president, the then senator became the target of voter expectations and criticism, such as that of journalist Eugenio Bucci: "Since everything is an image, someone should proclaim, at once, that advertising has supplanted journalism in the function of mediating public debates. Without advertising, there is no democracy. At least, there is no election. This 'factor' Roseana is there to prove it. A few hundred insertions of PFL commercials on TV transformed the governor of Maranhão into the new trademark of the presidential campaign. Not that she is a charismatic leader. Everyone knows that the achievement of her own brand is not hers, but that of the advertising films" (BUCCI, 2001, p.2).

        Research at the time showed that the main target of Roseana's campaigns were women, in addition to being a political novelty at the national level,  and may become the face of the change so desired by Brazilians, however, a scandal involving one million five hundred thousand reais (about three million euros) in cash in the office of the Lunus company, of which she was a partner, broke out, money that was considered a campaign resource, and made her drop out of her candidacy in April 2002.

        This allowed the marketeer of the Workers' Party to use a strategy based on the use of electoral surveys, along with a need generated for the electorate who had the PFL candidate as their choice, a strategy that Duda Mendonça was able to use extremely effectively, so much so that the party's candidate became the winner at the end of this electoral race. Basically using polls that indicated that most of the electorate was willing to vote for a candidate who represented a change in the country's political course, Duda presented Lula as a conciliator, dressed elegantly and supported by a team of scholars and coaches of great quality.