The government (PT) increased advertising expenses in the first half of this year, on the eve of the start of the president’s re-election campaign, and allocated more than double government spending () in the same period of 2022.
The PT administration has already committed R$520 million to the Budget action, which is mainly used to pay for advertising campaigns by Secom (Secretariat of Social Communication) from January to June, before the electoral calendar imposes restrictions on communication spending. In the year of the last race for the Presidency, Bolsonaro sent R$213.5 million in the period.
In election years, official advertising is mainly concentrated in the first half of the year because the law determines the suspension of institutional advertising during the period known as closed season, which this year begins on July 4th. Only exceptions are permitted, such as campaigns that the Electoral Court recognizes as having “serious and urgent public needs”.
The legislation also imposes limits on the amount of money that governments can commit in the first half of the year. The figure is calculated based on the amounts committed in the previous three years with different types of communication actions, including Secom.
In the same Budget action that pays for advertising, the government also allocated around R$7.6 million to commission opinion polls. In a statement, the government stated that it follows the spending limits established by law.
“Eventual comparisons between different years must consider the specificities of each period, the public policies developed, the annual communication planning and the needs of public benefit campaigns, and it is not appropriate to make an isolated comparison of amounts committed between years without due contextualization”, said Secom.
The survey carried out by Sheet considers values updated by inflation and intended for the “institutional communication” budgetary action, which is entirely intended for Secom to commission propaganda pieces about government programs. The committed amount was recorded, which represents the portion of the budget officially reserved to pay a certain expense.
Federal management also has funds for “public utility advertising”, which are mainly used for campaigns by the Ministry of Health. They are also blocked during the electoral closure period, except for informational campaigns and those linked to topics such as vaccination, prohibiting the use of government slogans and mentions of candidates.
The government’s highest-value campaign so far has an estimated cost of R$150 million and the slogan “connecting deliveries and the future”. It is an advertisement classified as positioning, with the objective of distributing advertisements about different banners of the PT administration.
Secom also committed at least to the campaign about the end of , in which six days of work are followed by a day of rest.
The resources were used to produce the campaign with the motto “family time”, launched at the beginning of May. The PEC (Proposed Amendment to the Constitution) that ends the scale was approved by the Chamber and still needs to pass the Senate.
The Lula government allocated R$45 million to promote the new edition of the , which provides for debt renegotiation.
as to Sheet showed, that of public utility and government advertising reached around R$1.6 billion last year, the highest value since 2017. Secom consumed the main share (R$968 million), while the remainder was used mainly by the Ministry of Health.
The total Budget for 2026 foresees less advertising expenses compared to last year, around R$1.5 billion, with the largest share allocated to public interest actions (R$825.3 million).
In this term, the Lula government took a share of spending on advertising campaigns in Brazil. With the change, the resources allocated to e (owner of , e ) last year, the value in paid advertisements on television networks and .
The government also has to promote its flags. Secom — Briviacom Comunicação e Marketing, Binder Comunicação and BKR Advertising Agency — to manage an account of R$ 100 million destined for the production of videos, podcasts and other government advertisements.
Advertising campaign values are not detailed on the Transparency Portal. The website shows in a generic way how much each agency received. Secom has its own portal with information about the distribution of advertisements, but with outdated updates.
A Sheet raised the costs of part of the advertisements based on information recorded in commitment notes in Siafi (Integrated Financial Administration System) and data obtained from people who monitor the execution of federal campaigns. The values were later confirmed by Secom.
On Wednesday (24), the PL, party of the senator (RJ), asked the TSE (Superior Electoral Court) to suspend all advertising campaigns by the Lula government, on the grounds that the federal administration has already exceeded the advertising spending ceiling in the first half of the election year (which is calculated based on the monthly average of the years prior to the election). Minister André Mendonça is the case’s rapporteur.
On the 17th, it responded to a request from deputy Carlos Jordy (PL-RJ) and, specifically, advertisements on the campaign networks for the end of the 6×1 scale.
Secom informed that it will present to the Court “the technical and legal clarifications that are necessary”.
In 2022, the Bolsonaro government paid at least R$20 million for a campaign about the bicentenary of Independence — which would have resulted in the former president being punished with ineligibility by the TSE.
One from the TCU (Federal Audit Court) also pointed out that high-value campaigns carried out in 2022 had poorly defined themes, such as one for R$100 million for “accountability and balance sheet”, in addition to another for R$120 million classified as “always on”, a strategy aimed at keeping different government messages in the media for longer.
Part of these campaigns in the last year of the Bolsonaro government were undertaken after the electoral period, when he had already been defeated.
