The election for city government positions, including mayor, is this Sunday. I am literally counting the days until it's over because my brain is turning to mush from all the political advertising.
In Salvador, one of the ways that candidates advertise themselves is to have these "sound cars" drive around. These cars have the politician's picture and the number that you punch in at the ballot box, along with a sound system that is so loud it could wake the dead. And the sound system plays these catchy little tunes over and over and over again.
Now when the political season first started and the cars came out, some of the tunes were actually kind of enjoyable (am I actually saying this?!). They all sang about how the candidate will make Salvador the best place in the world to live because he or she will get rid of all the violence, solve all the problems in the health care and educational systems, and fix everything else that is wrong here. The tunes were varied and they always had that fun refrain that you eventually ended up hearing people on the streets kind of humming under their breath as they went about their daily routines.
In the last 1-2 weeks the songs have changed as it gets closer to the election. Now all the songs basically consist of 2 things: the candidate's name and the number. And they just say it over and over again. The songs are all in Portuguese, but if they were in English, it would go something like this:
Neto is 25
Neto is 25
25 25 25 25 25 25 25
Press 2...2!
Press 5...5!
Neto Neto Neto is 25
Press repeat. And blast at high volume when you are trying to concentrate on your life. Welcome to Salvador's election.
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2 comments:
doesn't it make you want to cry? the other day I walked all the way from Campo Grande to Praca da Piedade with one of these f**ing cars keeping pace with me the whole way- yes, it was moving at a walking pace with it's speakers blasting directly into my ear for about 15 minutes. Also I think the 'songs' are really best described as 'jingles' - I can't wait for Sunday to be over!!
haha I found your post pretty funny, because sadly, yeah this is the true situation and you, me and no Brazilian can stand this anymore.
Our politic is a comedy show. Being it in election times - TV/External advertisement and the worst, it stills a comedy when the guy is elected.
Too good that in TV the advertisements were in their last day today.
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