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Extremely short, barely half a second long, flash ads containing the most important campaign message of wealthy entrepreneur György Gattyán’s party, the Solution Movement (Megoldás Mozgalom) are appearing on pro-government commercial TV channel TV2. The situation raises many questions, because in Hungary media outlets have to obtain prior approval from the National Election Committee (NVB) to run political advertisements, and among TV channels, so far only rival broadcaster RTL Klub has done so.
Digitalization!
– the main campaign message of György Gattyán and his party flashes across the screen in white letters against a red background in the commercial break of TV channel TV2.
The message which refers to the digital transformation of Hungary’s health care, education and government, is wedged between two longer ads, flashes for less than a second, and can be just barely noticed by the viewer. Each advertisement consists of roughly 14 frames and lasts just 0.56 seconds, thus they can almost be considered subliminal advertising.
The political ad was spotted by a reader of Telex. The government-critical news portal even released a video showing what it looks like on screen:
The portal recalled that this is not the first time Hungarian TV viewers could see such short ads. State company MVM used the same type of commercial for the promotion of the Paks Nuclear Power Plant in 2016, also on TV2.
The flash advertisements with Gattyán’s party message are rather surprising, as under Hungarian law media service providers are required to notify the National Election Committee in advance if they wish to run political advertisements. (Under the relevant law, moreover, they must do so free of charge.)
According to the media news site, Media1, RTL Klub is the only television broadcaster to have done this by the deadline (public media is an exception to this, as it is obliged by law to provide space for political advertising, also for free).
Media1 asked TV2 about the flash ads. The broadcaster said that the advertisements were not ordered by a party but by one of Gattyán’s companies, Legnagyobb Vállalkozás Kft, and thus the channel received money for the advertising. The portal says this way Gattyán’s party might have been able to cheat the relevant legislation.
Media1 also turned to the National Election Committee (NVB), which confirmed that in addition to public media, only RTL Klub could broadcast political advertising, as no other TV channels asked for the opportunity.
As to whether the NVB is investigating Gattyán’s political ads, the committee said that determining whether a service provider is lawfully promoting political advertising is possible if the body receives a formal objection.
Hungary’s media regulator NMHH was also asked by Telex which sent a similar reply to the news portal.
“The NMHH can only examine whether a given advertisement complies with the relevant legislation following a formal notification, and is not entitled to issue a legal interpretation in the absence of such a notification,” the authority wrote to the portal.
György Gattyán, who has made his fortune with the adult streaming site LiveJasmin, first hinted last November that he was thinking of running for office in the 2022 parliamentary elections. He finally declared his candidacy in December and announced the Solution Movement as his new party.
Many of his critics believe the billionaire’s participation in the elections serves no other purpose than helping governing Fidesz, as it can divide the electorate. Gattyán repeatedly denied these allegations, claiming he has no ties with the ruling party in any way. However, recent photos of the vice-president of Gattyán’s party have surfaced in which he can be seen toasting and posing for photos with Viktor Orbán. Some of his MP candidates are also reportedly fans of the prime minister.
Featured photo by Szilárd Koszticsák/MTI