The election campaign started officially on July 30, however, the politicians in Sumy region have started campaigning already few months ago, and is moving forward at a fast pace.
Having analyzed the last month of campaign, namely, the external advertising, we came to conclusion, that the political powers or candidates chose different methods to make themselves known and frequently these methods are surprising.
Creativity of the Party of Regions
The Party of Regions is the one who uses the local color the most: billboards, city-lights, advertisements on the transport vehicles and inside of them, during the celebrations and other mass events. And lately, the main member of the Party of Regions in oblast and the Head of Sumy oblast state administration Yurii Chmyr has even sent letters to the dwellers of Sumy.
Few weeks ago some mini buses were covered with the advertisements of the Party of Regions. The main slogan on the front part of the vehicle was: "The route is opened!", and lower the inscriptions are changing: "To the blooming city!", "To the revival of economy!", "To harmony and mutual understanding".
The logo of the Party of Regions and a slogan "Start moving with us!" were placed at the back part.
Some mini buses have the advertisements inside - the small flags with the symbols of the Party of Regions.
The city-lights and billboards located in the city are designed in the same style: they wear the image of traffic lights with wrong but party colors (blue and yellow) and the same slogans as on the mini buses.
During the weekend on July 28-29 a lot of citizens of Sumy received the letter from Yurii Chmyr, which contained a similar slogan "The rout is opened to the harmony and mutual understanding!"
We indicate that the owners of a big number of mini buses in Sumy are brothers Ihor and Yurii Perepek, who are also the deputies of Sumy city council from the Party of Regions.
The representatives of the Civil Network OPORA contacted for comments the Head of Sumy city department of logistics Valerii Semesenko, who also manages the transport issue. The official informed that the city budget does not receive any money from this political advertising because it is not provided in the election laws. According to the information he provided, the mechanism is following: the transport operator signs an agreement with an advertising company for the advertisement positioning. Thus, as a result, any party can sign an agreement with the advertising company and cover the public transport with political advertisements.
In addition, lately, the posters of Oleksandr Kostenko appeared on the intertown mini buses, which go around the district #158 with center in Bilopillia city. Oleksandr Kostenko is the potential candidate from the Party of Regions in this district, President of the charity fund "You are not alone - we are together" and Head of agricultural enterprise "Ukrainski agrarni investytsii" ("Ukrainian agrarian investments").
The Communist Party of Ukraine and the United opposition: placement "from center"
Regardless the external advertisement strangle of the Communist Party of Ukraine, only Volodymyr Danylenko, who is the candidate from the Communist Party in the voting district #162, pleases with creativity. Already in July in Okhtyrka appeared the city-lights with a big portrait of the candidate and a slogan "Deeds instead of talks" with an explanation "Fulfilled the dream of the children from the sport club "Hratsiia" in Okhtyrka city."
Other candidates were not that active and the advertisements of the Communist Party do not differ from the all-Ukrainian ones.
The same scenario pursues the United opposition. As it was stated in the oppositional headquarters inSumyoblast, the external advertising is centralized, therefore there is no local creativity.
Wave-like advertising and black PR
The advertisements from other political powers appear on occasion. Mainly appear the billboards and city-lights of Viktor Medvedchuk and Nataliia Korolevska, which are renewed from time to time.
Also, in Sumyregion the signs of black PR were noticed. Thus, in Sumy city the unknowns pasted up the leaflets against Oleksandr Volkov, who is the candidate in the voting district #158. The authors of the leaflets reminded the citizens of Sumy of the politician's past: "Stop cheating the people" - it was the slogan of Oleksandr Volkov under the flags of Kuchma. The dark nightmare of Sumy region - Shcherban - is his godfather and business partner." We do not know who ordered these leaflets. However, in his comment for the Civil Network OPORA, Oleksandr Volkov personally hinted that he knew the customer.
Taking into consideration the fact that the election campaign just gains momentum, we can expect that the amount of local creativity in the external advertising, especially from the majoritarian candidates, will increase.
The Civil Network OPORA is a non-governmental, non-political and financially independent nationwide network of public activists. We have teamed up to enhance public participation in the political process by developing and implementing models of citizens’ influence on the activities of state and local government in Ukraine.