Billboard recycling sign of times
The streets have been reclaimed. Billboards showing smiling candidates are gone. But where do they all end up? Rodney Local Board candidate Tessa Berger’s signs became so popular that she took orders for them, after some disappeared.
All of them have now been reserved to be given to her supporters, and she plans to auction one of them off and give the proceeds to a community organisation.
A spokeswoman for mayoral candidate Vic Crone said her 400 billboards would be recycled, with the bracing donated to other candidates for future campaigns.
Mayoral candidate Chloe Swarbrick doesn’t have any hoardings, but had a few recyclable posters put up in the central city.
She said a few people have asked for copies of them, but “most of them will just be recycled”.
Berger, 22, puts her billboards’ popularity down to them being reflec- tive of her fresh approach. “I’m a perfectionist by nature, when I was designing the billboard I put myself in everyone’s shoes, and got very involved in everything right down to the font and colour choice.
“I thought the yellow was very inspiring, hopeful and happy. The photo i s completely unedited, we took that at Omaha.
“The sun was setting and the light was coming down from the corner, you can see it on the billboard, and it’s representative of a young person coming through. The photo was down to a tee — a total encompassing of the vision that I had.”
A recent study led by a Columbia University researcher found that election advertisements increased vote share, but only by a margin of 1.7 per cent.
Auckland University political marketing expert Jennifer LeesMarshment said election billboards were a gateway to greater engagement in the process.
“Local elections in particular struggle to get voters interested. People going about their daily lives don’t have the time or energy to deal with politics, so what the signs do is draw attention to the fact that there is an election on.
“They’re highly visual, and at least it encourages people to go and seek more information elsewhere.
“If done cleverly and strategically they can help, but it’s just that they don’t change people’s votes, it’s all just part of a general mix of communication.”
In Auckland, everyone from mayoral candidates to those running for spots on local boards used colours, slogans and close- up photos of their mugs to increase their profiles and lure in voters. Some, LeesMarshment said, were more effective than others.
Lees- Marshment warned there was potential for campaign signs to backfire and put voters off, particularly if they were “weird, offensive or problematic”.
“In that case it’s the candidate’s fault for getting the strategy wrong,” she said.