The political construction of candidates' images through posters and electoral events in the June 23rd election campaign

Abstract

The political construction of the image of candidates running or involved in an electoral process is a matter of particular interest in research. The prominent and equally privileged position they acquire as such is not only one of their main reasons or accusations. The influence of two relevant factors: the personalization of politics and the politics of spectacle or politainment, also explain or justify the centrality and influence that political leaders occupy, beyond the electoral campaign itself. Therefore, the main objective that motivates this study is to analyze and describe the main conventional political communication instruments -based on the electoral poster and the political campaign events-, in order to determine their implications and repercussions on the previously exposed meanings used by the four main, most representative candidates, belonging to the political parties PSOE, PP, Sumar and Vox that participated in the Spanish legislative elections held on July 23, 2023. Using a qualitative methodology, based on the combined application of various analytical, descriptive, and comparative methods, the results were applied to a sample of 12 representative images of the candidates. The results, in particular, demonstrate the significant influence of these conventional political marketing instruments. The conclusions, finally, specify how, in addition to preserving their usual function regarding the creation and publicity of the candidate's political profile, they also achieve their involvement in the articulation of meanings and specific forms of political expression that commonly converge in the figurative recreation of the “star candidate”, allowing their representations to be perceived as closer to those of a celebrity than to those of public servants.