Hungarian Elections 2006

Second wave of posters

As the Hungarian elections are on 9 April 2006, the Election campaign in Hungary is slowly coming to an end. Apparently, most parties have already given out everything they had in mind in form of posters, statements, scandals, and promises. For the last weeks of the campaign, not much remains, and the majority of the public already acknowledged what the parties have shown, and decided who to vote for. And now, in the last three weeks, the PR department of FIDESZ decided to come out with the last phase of the “We live worse” campaign.

On the one hand, the timing of this “phase” of the FIDESZ posters could have been better, as people might have lost their interest in the whole 2006 election by now. On the other hand, timing is pretty good, because the other parties seem to be slumbering on the pile of their advertising they already released. It is a bit sad that after a good start with Kovács Pisti, SZDSZ has nothing more to show. It is even worse that we cannot recall anything from MSZP, despite the fact that they had the biggest posters throughout the city. And we better not mention MDF, whose campaign also failed to make an impact. In 2006, the parties seem to have been lazy, except for FIDESZ, who have thrown the imaginary sadness and degradation of Hungarian society and economy into the face of the public with the “We live worse” campaign. Even without the follow-up, FIDESZ could have been among the two parties who made their point in the last few months of the election campaign.

Let’s just have a quick look at this follow-up. The first phase, “We live worse,” shown people living under bad (“worse”) conditions in the last four years, under the MSZP government. The posters operated with facts (or, as pointed out by some official sources, “factoids”), sad faces, and dark backgrounds. The follow-up, which I, as no FIDESZ-voter, would call the “Heaven will follow”-campaign, shows just the opposite. Each previous poster has the contrary in this campaign: the sad elderly lady with the expensive medication turns into a happy lady, saying that medicine will be cheaper. The unemployed man with the frown now smiles and says that FIDESZ will make 500.000 new jobs, and so on. All the posters show happy faces (saying vote for us, and you will be happy), with a bright white background (after the last four years of darkness, four years of sunshine will follow, just vote for us).

Whether the promises FIDESZ makes on these posters are real or not, the party scored again with this kind of marketing. Regardless of the result of the Hungarian elections in 2006, FIDESZ apparently have won the poster campaign by making their promises clear and reaching the people with them.

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Hungarian elections 2006 - Pisti Kovács is face of campaign and biggest success of SZDSZ
Hungarian elections 2006 - Do Hungarians live worse than four years ago?
Hungarian elections 2006 - Where are the nationalists?
Hungarian elections 2006 - The chances of smaller parties
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Hungarian elections 2006 - The second wave of posters
Hungarian elections 2006 - The last week of the campaign
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