Advisor, Lula’s Marketer demands team’s passion – 04/04/2024 – Power

President Lula’s (PT) marketer in the 2022 campaign, Sidônio Palmeira, has intensified his presence in Brasília in recent weeks. On at least two occasions since March 21, he met with the president to discuss how to improve the Executive’s image, including a meeting this Wednesday (3) at Palácio da Alvorada.

Even without a position in the government, Palmeira still participated in a meeting to discuss the communication strategy of government bodies. He was called on to guide, also on Wednesday, the team of the Minister of Health, Nísia Trindade, who is going through a crisis due to the rise in dengue cases across the country and clashes with parliamentarians in the National Congress.

The meeting between him and the minister should take place next week, when a press conference between Nísia and Lula is planned to show positive results from the department.

Last week, the marketer was part of the table that led the meeting called by the Minister of the Communications Secretariat, Paulo Pimenta, with representatives from nine ministries, in addition to Caixa Econômica and Banco do Brasil.

The call was for executive secretaries and heads of the communications offices of the departments, but not everyone was present.

In his instructions, Palmeira said that the PT administration is better than the current popular perception highlighted by research. For him, this would be a sign that something is wrong.

Three members of the government who were at the meeting reported, with reservation, that he also said that problems often fall on Pimenta, the head of management communications. But he stressed: it would be everyone’s fault.

“Communication without love, desire, lust, without shine won’t go anywhere”, he told those present.

He also mentioned that “a government without a brand is a weak government.” The meeting lasted 1h50 and, in addition to Pimenta and Palmeira, the Advertising Secretary of Secom (Communication Secretariat), Mariana Seixas Lima, also participated in the panel that guided the meeting.

Palmeira said, according to reports, that the problems faced in the department are affecting Pimenta’s health, who has been sleeping little. The minister told the Sheet that these statements were nothing more than a joke.

The marketer also mentioned the need to understand the current state of communication and that research is a snapshot of a moment, a trend. But, according to him, Lula would understand that negative results from the surveys occur because the government’s first year was about planting and that, from now on, the harvest of positive guidelines will begin.

The head of Secom told Sheet that the meeting is part of a round that will be held with all ministries to prepare “a communication action for the next period”.

“Since last year, on several occasions I have received guests at a work meeting. Normally, whoever is going to speak sits at the table. I invited him to listen, as I have listened to other people”, he said.

Pimenta cited deputy Rui Falcão (PT-SP), the mayor of Araraquara, Edinho Silva (PT), and Marcos Coimbra, president of the research institute Vox Populi, as people who have already participated in meetings about communication, even without having a position in the Executive.

Sidônio approached Lula and became a marketer for Lula’s 2022 campaign amid an internal dispute that led to the dismissal of his predecessor, Augusto Fonseca.

Graduated in engineering, he is described as pragmatic, didactic and with the capacity for political analysis. Standing up, the advertiser usually presents a diagnosis of the scenario to his team, delegating the creation of advertising pieces to his partners.

Professional colleagues and politicians with whom he worked say that he has a conciliatory profile, is not prone to outbursts and tends to listen before making a decision. Sidônio Palmeira was contacted but did not want to speak to the reporter.

A Datafolha survey released two weeks ago showed that the Lula government’s approval was technically tied with its rejection: 35% to 33%. In the December survey, the score was 38% to 30% — the margin of error is two percentage points, plus or minus.