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Party Symbols in Commercial Advertisements

September 19, 2012

Nino Tsagareishvili

Using party symbols in commercial advertisements is a type of hidden political advertising. Georgian legislation does not recognize the notion of the hidden political advertisement and leaves this issue beyond its regulation.

Human Rights Center monitors hidden political, social and paid political advertisements in the frame of the project Media Monitoring of the Parliamentary Elections. The monitoring revealed one fact of using party symbols in commercial advertisements.

Signs of hidden advertisement were detected in the commercial advertisement of the Caucasus Online aired by Rustavi 2 and Imedi TV; the title of the advertisement is There Is a Good Internet in the City. At the end of the advertisement we hear a phrase “Good internet starts from five megabits” and we see number 5 on the red background, that is election number of the National Movement in red and white colors. Figure 5 causes association of the National Movement in this advertisement.

Advertisement about summer jobs also uses party symbols and it was aired by Rustavi 2 and Imedi as well. Young people participating in the advertisement wear white t-shirts with red inscription SJ (summer job). The first latter S causes association of the election number 5 of the ruling party.

This advertisement contains sings of social advertisement. It informs population about public welfare that is one of the criteria of the social ad definition.

Human Rights Center requested Rustavi 2 and Imedi to provide them with the list of social advertisements they air. Rustavi 2 did not reply to the Center. But this particular advertisement was not in the list of social advertisements in the letter received from Imedi. So, it was paid one.

It is noteworthy that throughout election years of 2008 and 2010 various private companies used the number and different variations of the party slogans of election subjects in their advertisements (video-rolls, banners, printed materials) during the pre-election period. Thus, they directly advertised the ruling party. For example, Beeline – tariff 5 tetri; MagtiCom – 5 tetri gift for the calls from Bali to Bali; Lailai – 5 selected numbers.

Number 5 was observed in the video-roll of the Company Magti prepared in 2012.

We observed number 5 in the advertising banners of private companies this year too. An advertisement banners appeared several months ago in Batumi and number 5 is observed on them too: “5 minute with Galf,” “5 Hyundai Jeeps”, “Every fifth flat for free.”


Coalition of nongovernmental organizations This Affects You believes introduction of relevant legislative regulations can resolve the problem of prohibiting hidden political advertisements in the country. Coalition thinks definition of hidden political advertisement must be worked out in the law. Due to legislative practice of various countries, Coalition evaluates information spread by mass media sources (TV-story, TV-program advertisement and others) as hidden advertisement which is not directly connected with the coverage of pre-election campaign and which presents or/and mentions election subject/candidate/political party/candidate-to-be, mentions above-listed subjects, their slogan and/or number (if it is associated with the election number of any subject/candidate/political party/candidate-to-be) or/and other requisites.

Human Rights Center implements Media Monitoring of Parliamentary Elections by financial support of International Foundation for Electoral Systems (IFES) under the framework of four-year project Increased Trust in Electoral Process (ITEP) financed by USAID (US Agency for International Development).


                                                  
This blog is made possible by the support of the American people through the United States Agency for International Development (USAID). The contents are the sole responsibility of Human Rights Center and do not necessarily reflect the views of the International Foundation for Electoral Systems, USAID or the United States Government.
                                                     

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