Gerrit Voerman, director of the Documentation Center Dutch Political Parties, sighs deeply when asked about the new election board.
That is no longer made of wood, but of recyclable plastic. Not with posters that the parties themselves have stuck up somewhat skewedly, but neat, pre-determined squares of the same size. These so-called ‘trotters’ have been on the rise since a number of elections. Municipalities find it useful: it saves costs and they are ‘vandal-proof’.
Voerman calls the new plates “sterile”. “All the charm and sjeu is gone. It is an impoverishment of electoral culture.” He also looks in the archive of the DNPP: more and more often he does not receive a rolled up poster. While that is also “nice” for the collection.
The sticky wars are not over everywhere. In many small municipalities the lampposts are again covered with posters and the signs are plastered over. Only the poster in front of the window seems to be on the decline.
This presence in the physical space is important, says Frank van Dalen of the Political Academy, who helps parties to run the best campaign with micro-targeting. “But if a party thinks it can only do it with posters, then it will be disappointed.” According to him, it is about both flyering, and going to the market with a team, and about participating in political events. In addition to visibility in the media and online presence.
Where parties have to consider the posters, says Van Dalen „that in a split second the message has to get across”. So one or two words „what you stand for. But meaningful.” Further logo and list number. “Certainly if you are a new party, the voter still has to know which party it was in the voting booth. Was it Local Forward or Local Backward?”
Prince Carnival
He is clear about photos of party leaders: “Most are not recognized.” Certainly in smaller congregations it is sometimes “overestimated” how well-known someone is, he says. “If a party leader was now Prince Carnival and chairman of the football association…” According to him, the heads of only a few politicians are effective as a campaign tool: “Rutte, Wilders, Baudet. Then we are already through it.” They are not candidates for the city council, but the latter is on posters in municipalities where Forum for Democracy participates. “The head of Baudet is a brand in itself,” says Van Dalen.
Party leaders have been in vogue since the fifties, says Voerman. With the rise of television, the person came to play a role.
The election posters themselves took off in 1918, when universal male suffrage was introduced and the proportional system for parliamentary elections was introduced. “Instead of separate constituencies, the country became one big district, and it was important to win votes everywhere.” Since then, there have been occasional calls for the posters to be abolished. “But no party wants to be the first, the only one without.”
Are election posters effective? No, say Voerman and Van Dalen. No, says Rens Vliegenthart, professor of media and society at the University of Amsterdam. It “could” do something for the turnout, but to its knowledge no research has been done. Furthermore: „Wild-pasting helps with the group feeling of a party. Out together with a pot of glue. But no one is convinced by a poster alone.”
A version of this article also appeared in NRC in the morning of March 2, 2022
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