Caricatures and political mascotization in Paraíba: strategies of marketing and child advertising in election campaign media
Caricatures; Political Mascots; Election Campaign; Political Marketing; Child Advertising.
This study investigates the phenomenon of the use of caricatures (LIMA (1963), ERBOLATO (1981), MELO (1983), BERGSON (1983), RABAÇA e BARBOSA (1987), PORTO (2012))
as political-electoral propaganda media (CÂNDIDO (2010), GOMES (2012), MOREIRA (2004)) in Paraíba, based on the 2012, 2014 and 2016 election campaigns in that state. The objective was to conceptualize and characterize the phenomenon, analyzing the ways of operation of their cognitive schemes and identifying a strategy that determines the use of caricatures as campaign media. Therefore, the research was developed in a transmethodological way (MALDONADO (2012)) based on two research pillars: one focused on creation (the message itself and the production of meanings) and another focused on the creators (the strategy behind social practices). The first of them focused on the study of the production of meanings in advertisements. Were analysed caricatures used as election campaign media, based on the contributions of Peirce's Semiotic Theory (SANTAELLA (2002 e 2007), MACHADO (2007), SONESSON (2007), PEIRCE (2010), PEREZ (2011)). The second pillar of investigation focused on the study of social practices that permeate the entire creative process of caricatures. At this stage, the social actors involved in the process of design creation and campaign planning were interviewed. The interviews were analyzed in light of the contributions of the French Discourse Analysis (MAINGUENEAU (1997 e 2008). From the discussions developed, we came to the concept of political mascot and, therefore, the concept of political mascotization. The adoption of the language of children's advertising was also identified (MONTIGNEAUX (2003), VELOSO (2012)) as a political marketing strategy (QUEIROZ (2006), RIBEIRO (2006), TORQUATO (2014)). which determined the use of political mascots as election campaign media in Paraíba.