Lula, Flávio Bolsonaro turn to free TV and radio ads in Brazil race

Riodejaneiro,UPDATED: Aug 29, 2026 02:24 IST

Brazil's top presidential candidates, Luiz Incio Lula da Silva and Sen Flvio Bolsonaro, from Friday will seek to win over voters through free advertisements on television and radio, which experts say still play a central role in election campaigns despite the rise of social media.

In a country with a strong online presence, television and radio advertisements continue to shape public discussion, influence voters and reach remote parts of Brazil. With incumbent Lula, who is seeking a fourth nonconsecutive term, polling neck and neck with his main rival, independent political consultant and former Brazilian minister Thomas Traumann said the advertising battle is likely to be highly aggressive.

"I think the campaign will be dirtier than 2022, and 2022 was already one of the dirtiest in Brazilian history," Traumann said, referring to the last presidential election in which Lula defeated former President Jair Bolsonaro by the narrowest margin since Brazil's return to democracy in 1985. Jair Bolsonaro is currently serving a 27-year sentence for attempting a coup.

Much like Brazil flags and street paintings signal the World Cup season, campaign advertisements on television and radio mark the approach of elections and bring the contest to the forefront of public attention. Maria Izabel Pecanha, an 84-year-old retired history teacher from Rio de Janeiro, said many voters like her do not pay attention to social media advertisements and instead follow radio and television spots, as she has done since the 1950s.

"I like to watch them to feel excited, to feel angry, to think of how Brazil's political actors show themselves. It is always very instructive," Pecanha said by phone. "I have watched today's and I will keep doing that until the end of the campaign, it is like watching a bit of history unfold."

Unlike in the US, Brazilian campaign advertisements are free for parties, and airtime is distributed according to the size of a coalition and its representation in the lower house. Bruno Pompeu, a communications and advertising professor at the University of Sao Paulo, said the free airtime "defends the democratic principle of equal treatment and means the amount of time each party gets is not going to be determined by the economic power of each party".

Experts said the style of these advertisements has changed over the years, and social media is likely to influence the tone and language used on traditional platforms. Joo Ricardo Matta, a business professor at the Getulio Vargas Foundation, said, "They will be less artificial, more natural, with the appearance of something homemade," and added that money once used mainly for television and radio production could shift towards social media campaign material.

Ahead of the first round of voting on October 4, broadcasters must set aside 14 minutes a day for nearly 1,000 advertisements of 30 seconds each, along with blocks of 12 minutes and 30 seconds reserved only for presidential candidates. Lula and allied parties will get 5 minutes and 31 seconds of those blocks, while Sen Flvio Bolsonaro's party will get 4 minutes and 20 seconds, with the rest divided between two other parties. Traumann said the shorter time available to Flvio Bolsonaro reflects his difficulty in bringing major parties behind his candidacy, unlike his father in 2018. If the election goes to a run-off on October 25, the two remaining candidates will get equal airtime. The campaign's television and radio phase is thus expected to remain a major battleground in Brazil's presidential race.

With PTI Inputs

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