Political parties often only have a few seconds to get their campaign messages across as motorists and pedestrians glance over their placards and posters. Our colleagues from RTL recently spoke to communication advisor Lou Scheider, who delved into the various strategies to get people’s attention.
Scheider noted: “When you’re up and about in Luxembourg City, then you get into contact with between 1,200 and 1,500 visual media. There really is a mass of influences. But, people still take it in. Media therefore have to be as recognisable as possible, as people tend to only have limited interactions with them. Codes have to work and the messages have to be extremely simple. The rule is clearly ‘less is more’.”
Despite having less of an impact in today’s environment, traditional election posters still play a role in most campaigns. While the more established parties usually know how to keep their messages short and concise, the newer players in town often struggle to strike a balance.
When comparing Luxembourg’s poster landscape to those abroad, Scheider believes that one thing stands out above all: “The messaging is rather well-behaved. Defensive even. ‘Let’s be professional, proper, and without mistakes.’ But, that is why parties somewhat lack energy and fail to grip voters.”
Scheider laments a lack of creativity, contending that it is typical for Luxembourg to prioritise candidates’ faces over messaging in this year’s campaign. The only exception to the rule are The Greens and the Alternative Democratic Reform Party (ADR), he observed.
“When you’re dealing with general slogans like ‘for a safe Europe’ and ‘a strong Europe’, people no longer take those in as they consider it self-evident. Things that stand out are somewhat missing, which is unfortunate”, Scheider explained.
He is most convinced by the campaigns of The Greens and of the Luxembourg Socialist Workers’ Party (LSAP): “They are a little more dynamic. The heart-focused slogan shows that they seek to set themselves apart from the DP-CSV majority. Both their campaigns are professional and very well-behaved, but they are also very similar. Particularly since the blue tone is even more pronounced in the European campaign.”
