I’ve always been fascinated by election posters. I’m not sure why. Perhaps it’s the strangeness of encountering images of random people in the public realm. We’re familiar with seeing photos of people inside buildings, but outside is a different matter. I love the slogans too, everything from bland to bizarre. Or, maybe it’s because one of my earliest fond memories is being eight years old helping my father hang posters in rural Kerry on behalf of Austin Currie, Fine Gael’s candidate for the 1990 presidential election. Thirty-five years on, I can still almost smell the freshly printed glossy paper stapled to hardboard – no plastic in those days. There was an excitement to it – you were part of something big, a national event.
Despite living in the age of social media and constant news, expect a major ratcheting up in terms of general awareness of the forthcoming presidential election after September 24th, the day the posters are permitted to go up. And if, like Patsy Cline, you are inclined to go out walkin’ after midnight, exercise extreme caution on the night of September 23rd/24th, because you might just encounter the night posterers. These nocturnal creatures, known largely for their proficiency in the use of stepladders and plastic cable-ties, as well as their sleep-defying political fanaticism, will most certainly be found that night on roadsides adjacent to large vehicles with flashing orange hazard lights. The precise species of night posterer can be readily identified by the colour of their high-vis vests or the imagery they deposit on elevated positions such as lampposts and telephone poles. Their mission? Get their posters up first and take the best positions. Many are such committed Europeans that they operate on Central European Time, meaning that you’re highly likely to spot them at 11pm, one whole hour before the postering light turns green at midnight, particularly at the busiest junctions and most strategic display points.
Because, notwithstanding all our modern communications media, the traditional poster, like it or loathe it, connects with the broader electorate. There’s a reason parties and candidates still spend a fortune and literally don’t waste a minute to get their posters up – good posters work. They won’t win an election on their own, but nobody’s ever lost one because of good posters. The onset of the posters will also announce that the phoney-war is over and it’s game on. I can still vividly recall the unsettling feeling of seeing my own youthful mug on a poster for the first time back in 2004 during my maiden (and ultimately ill-fated) local election campaign. New Thinking For A New Era – an apt enough slogan for a 22 year-old who was going to change the world. Once the posters went up, there was no place to hide. It’s the most public form of job interview (and rejection) ever. But, at least, we got to use the 2004 posters again in 2009. At 27, I was still offering new thinking with some degree of credibility. The problem for some politicians though is that they take the recycling too far, and you end up seeing posters in present day elections that were printed when the Berlin Wall was still intact. You won’t get away with that in the presidential election. For the most apolitical role in the land, the race to the Áras is the most personally invasive and scrutinising of all campaigns. If you misappropriated your first communion money in 1965, it’s coming out in the open.
So far, with just three candidates guaranteed to be on the ballot paper – Catherine Connolly (Independent), Jim Gavin (Fianna Fáil) and Heather Humphreys (Fine Gael) – voters can expect to be reasonably familiar with all candidates, and their posters, come October 24th. This, of course, is dependent on the effectiveness or otherwise of organisational machines to actually physically distribute and erect the posters. For Fine Gael and Fianna Fáil, this is familiar territory, with networks (albeit dwindling) of experienced party activists in most communities who are willing and able to play their part. For Independent candidates, costs and logistics may prove more challenging, and they may need to lean on paid private contractors to do the job for them in cities and large towns, and along national primary and secondary routes. For Catherine Connolly in particular, it will be interesting to see just how much hands-on support she will receive from activists affiliated with the Labour Party, People Before Profit, the Social Democrats and most importantly, Sinn Féin, if it does not ultimately field a candidate.
Even if further candidates satisfy the constitutional requirements for nomination as set out in Article 12 of Bunreacht na hÉireann (Constitution of Ireland), in other words, secure a nomination from twenty current members of the Dáil or Seanad, or four Local Authorities, the ballot paper is still likely to be a short one, with five or six candidates at most. This makes a poster with a good photograph and impactful message even more important. And the photograph is critical – a picture does really paint a thousand words. Voters will want to see someone who looks like a President staring back at them when the posters go up. Figuring out what the voters feel that President should look like is the hard bit. Smiley but not too smiley. Serious but not too serious. Well-dressed but no furs and crown.
In contrast to this occasion, last June, voters had to choose between well over twenty candidates in each of the European Parliament constituencies, and often as many again in their own local electoral area. If you lived in Limerick, you had fifteen further candidates seeking to become Ireland’s first directly elected Mayor. The poster becomes far less important in such scenarios – it gets lost in a sea of other posters. And, unlike the previous three presidential elections in 1997, 2011 and 2018, there will be no referendum posters on the run up to October 24th to distract from the candidates. The poles and lampposts will be exclusively theirs.
Like an effective business strategy, a good poster will often capture the mood of a nation and tap into the public psyche. Examples that spring to mind include Fianna Fáil’s 2002 general election poster – A lot done. More to do. Coupled with an exquisitely lit image of Bertie Ahern, complete with the tricolour in the corner, the message connected with the feeling of growing optimism in Ireland at the time – don’t rock the boat, keep this going.
A few years earlier, Fianna Fáil also had their finger smack on the pulse of the nation with the 1997 presidential election poster for Mary McAleese – Building Bridges. Considering that the historic Good Friday Agreement would be signed just a few months later, I think it’s fair to assess that the strategists nailed it. McAleese secured 45.2% of all first preference votes cast. Interestingly, the runner-up in that election was Fine Gael’s Mary Banotti on a highly respectable showing of 29.3%. Banotti and Fine Gael had opted for a poster-free campaign. It could be argued that the contest might have been closer had posters been deployed in a national election that had just five candidates.
More recently, the 2011 presidential election poster used by Labour for the candidacy of Michael D. Higgins was pitch perfect – The President Who Will Do Us Proud. At a time when the mood of the nation was on the floor, with the IMF in town, mounting debt and massive unemployment, there was a dearth of national pride. Here was someone who represented the intangible, the soul of Ireland, and reminded people of happier times when Michael D. impressed as Minister for Arts, Culture and the Gaeltacht. The rest is history.
So, brace yourself. Pretty soon, the corriboard will appear on a street or road near you. And on that corriboard will be the image of a person, with a snappy slogan, looking for your vote. Keep an eye out for the nuances and enjoy seeing who taps into the public mood and resonates best with the people. In business, we can learn much from the business of politics. But don’t forget, one of those people will be our head of state for the next seven years, so choose wisely when polling day comes.
Brendan Griffin is a former Fine Gael TD for Kerry and former Minister of State for Tourism and Sport.
