A hit in Rio de Janeiro since the 2000s, “A Dança do Créu”, by MC Créu, still makes waves at the end of the party, warning that to dance “you have to be willing”. Nothing can be gleaned from the verse beyond the obvious, but being in a good mood seems to have become a virtue in this election year. The senator and presidential candidate (PL-RJ), 44, adopted his own jingle, “Funk do 01”, and started dancing during his pre-campaign.
Political marketing consultants claim that Flávio wants to show youthfulness, establishing a contrast with President Luiz Inácio da Silva (PT), 80. Son 01 targets the public of , a social network that stands out for its dances in short videos. According to experts, the senator mobilizes peripheral culture, seeking the votes of young people who live in these regions. At the same time, those around his pre-campaign rejected the choreography, saying it was a shot in the foot.
“Dancing generates the perception that he is healthy and fitter than Lula,” says political marketing consultant Lucas Pimenta. Last weekend, Flávio went to the Northeast, where he promoted two events, one in João Pessoa, Paraíba, and the other, in Natal, Rio Grande do Norte. Flávio wore a t-shirt that read “Northeast is the solution” and was announced to the sound of that jingle, made with artificial intelligence, about the arrival of a “new captain”.
“Hold the pressure that the team is on/ It’s God and family in the same tone/ Forget the past/ Focus on what’s next”, say the lyrics. Accompanying the beat, the “new captain” walked down the catwalks set up at the events, emulating the body play of passinho, a dance style linked to funk.
He took risks to the right and left, trying to make some turns. An ally of the senator, he compared the movements to those of an orangutan. Pre-campaign assistants also disapproved of the dances. Given the repercussion on the networks, they say, those scenes should never have existed, because they gave a ridiculous impression, resulting in a shot in the foot.
For Pimenta, Flávio sought, first and foremost, to attract attention in a world marked by excess information. As for the jingle, the consultant says it was constructed to help with what he calls the tribe effect, that is, the creation of a ritual to be repeated by supporters.
In Pimenta’s view, Flávio is trying to prevent 2026 from being a mirror of 2022, when the former president faced rejection from younger people. In July of that year, a Datafolha survey showed that 67% of people aged 16 to 29 disapproved of Bolsonaro’s re-election.
The most recent Datafolha survey shows that Flávio already has lower rejection than his father in the segment of young people aged 16 to 24 — 40%, four percentage points less than Lula’s disapproval.
Specialist in electoral marketing, Felipe Soutello emphasizes the choice of dance as an integral part of the pre-candidate’s gestures. “Dance has, especially if we consider the heritage of the rituals of original peoples, a political force by nature and almost every teenager today does a dance on TikTok”, he states.
Soutello is skeptical about Flávio’s ability to demonstrate youthfulness while dancing. After all, he states, elderly politicians have shown off with the same nature in recent years.
The trend was spearheaded by the president of , , who, two years ago, used “YMCA”, by the group Village People, as the campaign’s soundtrack. At rallies, his supporters repeated the Republican’s choreography, closing both hands to throw punches. A curious fate for a song that, in the 1970s, was a gay badge.
The former dictator of , , also decided to show that he was born to dance — but he failed. At the beginning of the year, he was captured by American forces because, among other reasons, Trump was irritated by Maduro’s little dance asking for peace.
In Brazil, the president of , (-AP), allowed himself to be caught, more than once, dancing at parties. The scene soon went viral on social media. While Flávio focuses on funk, Lula posts videos of his runs, suggesting he is in a good mood.
Also a political marketing consultant, Rodolpho Dalmo says that Flávio’s dances are a tactic of depoliticizing his figure, in favor of entertainment, to get closer to the electorate and only then present himself as a viable candidate. “It’s a depoliticization to become politicized, he needs to seem like he’s an ordinary guy,” says Dalmo.
