The work of Paulo de Tarso da Cunha Santos, 72, as a marketing agent for Lula (PT) during the 1989 campaign lasted almost four decades, although those elections ended long ago, with the PT member’s defeat to Fernando Collor de Mello.
Lula has been appointed to the Planalto three times since 2002 and is set to run for a fourth term. At each election, he resurrects an old strategy of Paulo de Tarso: a simple play on words on his name to mobilize the base of his supporters.
In 1989, the marketer juxtaposed the name Lula with the place where the activists wanted to see the then candidate: there, a term whose imprecision measures the utopia desired by the PT at that time.
Once the slogan “Lula there” was defined, Paulo de Tarso called on the musician Hilton Acioli to compose the jingle “Sem Medo de Ser Feliz”, sung until the last elections.
The publicist looks back on his political journey in his book “Lula Lá E Outra Histórias”, currently in bookstores at Geração Editorial, with behind the scenes, anecdotes and curiosities of those who have followed in the footsteps of politics and its actors since childhood.
According to Paulo de Tarso, jingles are no longer made like before. “The campaigns have started to adopt a more popular, more danceable tone, to attack the sound car. The bet is this: to make everyone dance, but then there is a loss of concept,” he says.
The book reminds us that “Sem Medo de Ser Feliz” was not an immediate success on the part of its author. Paulo de Tarso placed the order with Hilton during a luncheon also attended by advertising copywriter Tom Figueiredo. Two days after the meeting, the marketer received a call from the “jinglemaker” with the good news: Hilton had composed a samba exaltation.
The song would, however, be rejected by the marketer because it did not mention the candidate or the party. It took two more days for the phone to ring again, with the announcement of the final version, which met no resistance from activists.
The success was such that, during the 2022 elections, artists were invited to perform the song. Also in 1989, Paulo de Tarso incorporated the gesture of the letter “L” with his hands into Lula’s marketing, a neurolinguistic suggestion from activist Mário Milani. Regardless, the advertiser’s connection to politics precedes any election.
He is the son of Paulo de Tarso Santos, former Minister of Education in the government of João Goulart and federal deputy, arrested more than once, in the 1960s, by the military dictatorship, which caused him to lose his mandate and his political rights. He therefore went into exile with his family in Chile, where he stayed from 1964 to 1974.
In the book, Paulo de Tarso, the trader, remembers the times when he followed his father’s work, such as the day of the inauguration of Brasilia. At the time, he met Che Guevara, who was going to the capital to receive a decoration. The future elections expert wrote that he was not enchanted by what he saw as a sullen soldier who accompanied his father, the first mayor of Brasilia, to lunch – the position existed from 1960 to 1969.
Paulo de Tarso says he wrote “Lula Lá E Outro Histórias” to give young advertisers the memory of so many years in politics.
He didn’t just work with the PT. In 1985, he collaborated with Fernando Henrique Cardoso in his campaign for mayor of São Paulo. Both will meet again during the toucan’s second presidential term. As a communications adviser, he included more prosaic language in the president’s statements, one of which referred to God – big news at the time. He also faced the blackout crisis and, some time later, the monthly allowance, as a member of the Lula government.
In 2010, Paulo de Tarso was primarily responsible for Marina Silva’s marketing. In the book, the candidate at the time is described as temperamental, opposed to the team’s suggestions.
For next year, the advertiser has not ruled out working on a campaign. He says it is more difficult to communicate in the age of social media and says the scenario is more like a re-election of the PT member. “Lula has the presidency in hand. With all this confusion on the right, the country is moving towards the center,” said Paulo de Tarso.
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