Flood of posters turns skylines into election wallpapers

Let’s talk about the election posters hanging above us. I can hardly see the sky these days because there are so many black and white election posters hanging diagonally from one end of the street to the other. Are a thousand of them really necessary?

What exactly does this poster overload do? Psychologically, if you keep seeing and hearing something, be it a poster or a song, you might find it interesting. The marketing strategy is to keep a particular item in your mind for so long that you eventually want to own it – just like GhorerBazar’s Honey Nuts. I’m not criticizing the product, nor am I saying it’s bad, but I’m dying to try it because it pops up in my newsfeed every day. Similarly, these posters and music are the current Honey Nuts that you have to see to secure a vote for the upcoming election. It’s an old-fashioned strategy to become a leader.

However, I believe that anyone aspiring to a leadership position should have intelligence, modern intellectual capabilities, and some digital skills. The concept of winning votes should revolve around an individual’s personality rather than the dominant approach. During my school and university days, winning votes for roles like class representative or course president was a challenge. Imagine you want to become class representative for your course, and the first thought is to print a thousand copies of your face next to an unrelated object, perhaps an eagle or a toilet brush, rather than winning votes based on your skills and merit. Does that sound reasonable to you?

However, I am pretty sure that I have seen many that are for different brands every day. By the way, you get a pickup truck – a big one that can accommodate about 30 people – along with two big speakers just to shout and dance all over the capital. Nobody, mind you, not even the policemen, seems to mind! Can you imagine it? It’s like a free pass to the whole city. All you have to do is party around, dance to a fancy song, wear the headband of the mark Support them and scream your guts out. Free money and fun – isn’t that what we all want? At least it’s better than most full-time eight-hour jobs where your boss yells at you if you even breathe, right?

Not only are these strategies odd and unethical, they also contribute to other problems. First, the idea of ​​covering the entire city with posters undermines the natural beauty of our cities. In today’s urban environment, where trees are being cut down and fresh air is hard to come by because of exhaust fumes, the only beauty left is the city’s architecture – something these posters take away from us. Moreover, voters who want to collect votes after the election is over are unlikely to bother removing these posters. They will probably stay up for days until they eventually fall off on their own.

Second, our feeble hearing senses are also drawn into the chaos. Personally, I have to admit that the initial “party” anthem had a certain vibe to it. Why, you ask? No idea! Now, however, brace yourself for the onslaught of musical tragedy. It’s like they’re trying to outdo each other in absurdity. And let’s talk about the lyrics, shall we? Do they even make sense? Not really. It’s like they threw words into a blender and hoped for the best. You’d think a toddler with a rhyming dictionary could do better than that. Someone needs to hand these lyricists a synonym dictionary and a crash course in coherence. The only thing they’re winning is the race to make our ears bleed.

The overuse of campaign posters and loud music during elections overwhelms our senses and our urban environments, and detracts from the aesthetics of our society. While these methods aim to attract attention and influence votes, they contribute to environmental problems. It is important to remember that effective leadership should be based on qualities such as intelligence and merit, rather than relying solely on attention-grabbing tactics. As we move through the unconventional campaign strategies, we should emphasize the need for more thoughtful and substantive approaches to political campaigns to ensure the preservation of our urban environment and promote a more informed electorate.

Shahriyer Hossain Shetu is a research associate at the Center for Sustainable Development and an English lecturer at the Center for Language Studies at the University of Liberal Arts Bangladesh (ULAB).

The views expressed in this article are those of the author.

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