What is ‘electoral garbage’?
In a conversation with Expansion, Negrete pointed out that in the Mexican political scene, marketing has emerged as an essential tool to capture the attention of voters. However, the traditional focus on the image of the candidate, the name of the party and catchy slogans has often overshadowed the presentation of concrete proposals. This approach, although it may generate initial impact, has left behind the real objective of policy: substantive debate on real policies and problems.
In this context, the use of undeclared resources and the inclusion of attacks and defamations against political opponents proliferate without offering solid arguments or clear proposals. This content without substance is called “electoral garbage.”
Among the effects of “electoral garbage” on the streets are stress at the cognitive level and acting as distractions for drivers, which increases the risk of car accidents, especially at night.
It is going to be a very tough electoral campaign and the actors involved are going to put every penny they find into outdoor advertising to make noise.
Jorge Carlos Negrete, president of the FRRPU
The approval of the new Outdoor Advertising Law in June 2022 seeks to control visual pollution and the spread of this electoral garbage, but the measure might not be enough to fully address the problem due to the lack of uniform regulation in the country. . While Mexico City has an outdoor advertising law, no state has one and only 3% of municipalities have regulations in this area.
In addition, the city’s outdoor advertising regulations, which came into force last April, “is not made to make the law the ideal tool for Mexico City to have fewer advertising spaces, but rather it gives discretion to the authority to that determines the places, conditions and formats available”.
This legal vacuum has allowed politicians to use advertising spaces without clear restrictions, which, in the words of Negrete, can give rise to the “discretion of the authority to determine the places, conditions and formats available”, leaving residents as the They are the only ones who can authorize the placement of electoral propaganda on their properties and therefore who can remove it at any time.
When asked whether the recent attempts to regulate outdoor advertising will change the contest in terms of electoral advertising, Negrete believes that the contrast between federal and state law may result in the proliferation of advertisements in places not permitted by the regulations. federal.
Ideally, an amount would be established for political propaganda and that the National Electoral Institute (INE) would distribute it equally among the political parties, but since that does not exist, politicians can contract spaces based on the amount of money they have.” .
Negrete predicted a 50% increase in “electoral garbage” by 2024. “We will see advertising on billboards, walls, walls, pennants, mupis. We will be upholstered because it is going to be a very tough electoral campaign and the actors involved are going to put every last penny they can find to make noise ”, she concludes.