The Last Word Political posters: communicators or decorations?

Political posters are often described as the decorations of elections. However, on how effectiveor successful political posters really are in harvesting votes, the last word has not been spoken.Although no party has probably ever won or lost an election because of its posters, the power ofposters should not be underestimated. Posters are generally more effective in raising awarenessthan actually persuading voters to vote for a specific party. Political posters contribute mainly toimage building, the reinforcement of party support, and the visibility of the party, which couldultimately lead to a bandwagon effect (Trent & Friedenberg, 1995:269-271; Maarek, 1995:105).Judging by the effort that parties put into their poster campaigns, they certainly seem to regardthem as more than mere decorative statements. The countless reports of vandalism of postersby the different parties (see Van Staaden, 2006; Van Wyk, 2006; Louw, 2006:9; Smith, 2006; DeBeer, 2006:9) are testament to how important parties perceive posters. The Democratic Alliance(DA) felt so strongly about their posters that they (as they did in 2004) installed electronic sensorsin certain areas on their posters to alert them of vandalism (Anon, 2006). Surely parties wouldnot be lodging complaints and quarrelling over posters if they were not seen as vital to theelectioneering process. Parties thus spend a large portion of their budgets on posters. Theyestimate the cost of a poster at about R10,00 per poster, excluding the logistical costs of puttingposters up and taking them down.It is against this background that I will comment on the poster campaigns of the major politicalparties. My comments are mainly limited to posters that were available in Potchefstroom and thesurrounding areas, as these are the posters that I personally observed. Still, reference will bemade to some of the political hotspots, for example Cape Town, where the political campaignsenjoyed a high media profile. The comments will be directed at the themes addressed on theposters, the role of the party leaders on the posters, and the general appearance of these posters.