Everything connected to electoral billboards, their form, message and whether they can be lit up at night, has become a staple of our country’s electoral campaigns. This year’s EP election campaign is no exception, and we have taken a sideways look at the political adverts that adorn the main roads. The proverb says laughter is the best medicine, so we thought we’d inject a dose of humour into our analysis.

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Labour comes of age

Gone are the days when the PN propaganda machine focused solely on its leader. “What’s good for Sant is good for Gonzi,” the guys at Mile End might have thought as they planned their campaign.

The “innovative style” of boards used in the March 2008 campaign was dropped, presumably after the same guys at Mile End realised that the Maltese were not ready yet to be enticed to vote for a party that hung its message on overturned containers.

The party has gone back to using billboards and started using ones that glow in the dark as well. Their boards have become minimalist, no frills and the message is loud and clear.

XOKK

PL’s first billboard was clear in criticising the rise in utility prices, cleverly linking the “shock” people are getting when they open bills to the “shock” one might get from an electric current. However, the lack of logos or a party emblem have made people question whether it was propaganda material or advertising by some new energy-saving bulb manufacturer/ importer.

This board is set against a dark background, which is the preset format of later PL boards and in contrast to PN ones that are set against a white background.

Algebra

Gonzi is the root (or sum in this case) of all economic evil, this board suggests. GONZI is the answer to a simple sum of inflation, unemployment and higher utility bills drawn in white chalk on a black board. It’s all doom and gloom here, with the white chalk providing for some contrast.

Driving lessons

The third PL billboard is another piece of minimalist propaganda. The message is “Gonzi has lost control” near to a yellow ‘slippery road’ sign. Given PL’s campaign, it is easy to understand that the board refers to the Prime Minister’s hold over the economy. However, the PL might have some bombshell up its sleeve, suggesting that the PM lost control of something more closer to home.

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‘Testudo’ formation

PN’s first billboard

The Nationalist Party’s first billboard portrayed the 10 candidates strategically positioned in testudo formation like Roman legionnaires. The candidates at the flanks look as if they are about to take a step, which projects an image of a united front that is about to advance... a Roman testudo. Josanne Cassar on The Malta Independent on Sunday of 10 May, compared the 10 candidates to Starship Enterprise crew members from Star Trek.

The eight male candidates are wearing a dark suit and white shirt and each have a different tie colour, reminiscent of the Power Rangers who are assigned different colours. Alan Deidun’s tie is predictably green; Frank Portelli’s is dark PN blue while Simon Busuttil, who stands at the front, wears a pale blue tie. David Casa stands at his side with a purple tie. Alex Perici Calascione braves a red tie, Vince Farrugia dons an executive olive green tie while Rudolph Cini wears a yellow tie and Edward Demicoli wears a violet tie. Roberta Metsola Tedesco Triccas and Marthese Portelli sport a suit, which underlines them being young mother-lawyers in career.

Skont iz-zokk il-fergha

Well, this one’s a classic (a loose translation to English: The apple never falls far from the tree). A fire engine red background with a black tree made up of a multitude of LE (no) in black, doubling as thick foliage. The charming likeness of a Christmas tree that was put up in May had 12 baubles carrying the photo of each and every PL candidate as well as former PL leaders and current leader Joseph Muscat glaring from the tree pot.

Billboards are all about marketing; portraying a message pictorially without the need of providing instructions beforehand. They are not supposed to be a work of art, such as Mona Lisa, which has been the cause of much treatises and hypotheses due to the fact that Leonardo forgot to attach an instruction guide at the back.

Diehard PN supporters thought this particular board was an awful “Labourite thing”, while diehard Labourites thought the board was produced by their party and were proud that their EP candidates were the successors of Dom Mintoff, Karmenu, Fredu and Joseph. They thought it was a nice way of portraying the party as a united front after years of internal bickering.

Slumdog Millionaire

The PN’s third billboard reminds us of the Oscar-winning low-budget film Slumdog Millionaire, which culminates in the young protagonist’s pressing the right button.

Visually, the board features a mini portrayal of the first billboard on the side (which has become a logo for the PN during this campaign) with three buttons on the left.

Each of the buttons has got writing on it. The first one, in magenta, reads “I don’t know”. The colour used is the same one used by the then Malta Labour Party in the 2008 general election. The second one, a red button, has a big LE written on it while the third one, the ‘yes’ button is coloured in green... oops sorry that’s blue.

Needless to say, ‘Yes’ reminds us that the blue PN was in favour of Malta’s accession to the EU.

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Libertas

New party Libertas has its own limited number of billboards spread around the islands. Its sole billboard to date features a soft picture of its leader and only EP candidate on the right and a political essay on the left. Given that no major traffic accidents have been reported taking place near these boards, one might assume that the Maltese are either quick readers or...

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WANTED: AN EP candidates

Three mug shots appeared on a couple of billboards lately.

There was no WANTED sign, nor a reward.

At a closer glance, motorists realised that the shots were not advertising the spaghetti western The good, the bad and the ugly, but were actually the three AN EP candidates.

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AD thinks BIG

Alternattiva Demokratika turned out two bill boards. Both splashed in green and both containing a positive message, suggesting that it did not care about the catfights engaged in by bigger parties.

The first bill board portrays a pseudo Americanised version of a laughing girl trying to climb over her laughing father’s back, with the message “THINK BIG VOTE GREEN” splashed on it. The board features clearly the name of AD’s two EP candidates and its logo for the election.

The second billboard has a similar message with a large photo of the two candidates.