Election coverage: Cardboard – yes or mess?

Halimah Manan says YES:

It’s that time again. The one week in the year where boring grey buildings from the sixties are spiced up with colour: blues, reds, yellows and more hang from trees, cover walls and drape over the library bridge.

Campaign teams’ efforts have culminated in their mad rush to take the best spots for their candidate’s posters. The result is a conglomerate of names and colours everywhere and a buzz of excitement in the air. What’s not to love?

That usually quite dreary walk to your morning lectures transforms during elections week. Instead of rows of A4 posters imploring you to go to the next big club night, huge and much more colourful (and meaningful) posters mark your way.

What is usually a walk spent contemplating all of the decisions you made which led up to your less than chipper self becomes an interesting walk as you focus on names and faces, to identify who is running for the SU elections. Not to mention that each poster holds a certain character about it and tells you a lot about the person running for the position.

Not to mention that each poster holds a certain character about it and tells you a lot about the person running for the position

Beyond simply being interesting, though, the truth is that these posters are necessary. For every student who knows about elections, there are plenty more oblivious to them. Whether they like it or not, apolitical and apathetic or not, elections are thrust in their faces.

It’s difficult to ignore what’s happening when you see reminders everywhere. And, considering so few students voted last year, it’s even more imperative that people know about what’s happening. Overt, colourful posters are one of the best ways to do it. Even if they may not be as refined as Labour’s or the Tories’, that doesn’t make them any less significant.

Hardly eyesores, these posters generate necessary attention and they make campus look a little less dull!

Beth Hurst says it’s a MESS:

Overnight the infamous colourful cardboard has gone up all over campus. The usually grey dreary walls of the SU and the Library are bursting with shouty painted signs, proclaiming VOTE FOR…well….all of them. When I was a fresher, these signs confused rather than enlightened me. What did they mean? What policies and faces were behind the names painted in black.

A really eye-catching colour and design means nothing in way of whether a person will make a good sabbatical officer. Sure they may be 10/10 for arts and crafts but only a 4/10 for policy.

The cardboard sign phenomenon gets bigger and bigger each year – there’s even more space provided by metal structures by the bus stops. Whole teams of campaigners can be seen carrying the signs around campus, searching for that last bit of space to advertise their candidate.

Surely student voters are more likely to choose who they vote for based on reading manifestos, rather than picking a name they vaguely remember seeing on their way to the library. The Boar 2015 spread detailing manifestos and people campaigning on Facebook has far more impact plus scope to actually discuss what they want to do with the role. Are we not better than this mindless subliminal messaging?

Are we not better than this mindless subliminal messaging?

Any candidates that have environmentalist issues on their manifestos should really think about the impact of these signs – lets hope they’re all recycled! The cardboard signs just keep feeling like a nice idea gone out of control.

Apart from vaguely letting the student population know the names of the candidates running for different elections and the odd amusing catch phrase, do they really serve a purpose in effecting the outcome of the votes? I’d say probably not. Sadly I think the tradition of the cardboard signs is one that will endure, but at least they’re only up for a week.

Remember to vote in the elections – view candidate manifestos HERE.