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THE EVOLUTION OF FRENCH POLITICAL COMMUNICATION | 149

This means that not only television or radio commercials, but also billboard advertising,
adverts in newspapers and magazines,and direct marketing (mailing,phone marketing,
etc.) are now strictly prohibited to politicians at the peak of electoral campaigns,forcing
them to be content with ‘old fashion’ media, like meetings, leaflets, canvassing and so
on.

The only direct access to audiovisual media left is the very short airtime given free to
candidates or political parties on Public broadcast channels, and of course, to the final
‘decisive debates’. Naturally, politicians’ campaigns are also reported, under strict equal
access rules during newscasts or political programmes according to the newsrooms’
electoral coverage decisions, but journalists being, in France like elsewhere, inclined to
follow the ‘horse race’ story line, this coverage is quite deficient, both on issues and
contents, and on the ‘smaller’ candidates’ campaigns. The situation even worsened
recently for the 2004 regional and European elections, when the French Audiovisual
Supervising Board, the Conseil Supérieur de l’Audiovisuel (CSA) took the
unprecedented step of ruling out any appearance of politicians during the same three
month period on any kind of programme except the newscasts or specific political
programmes dedicated to the campaign. No Arsenio Hall anymore, so to speak, or his
French counterpart, Michel Drucker, the ever pleasant talk-show host, for French
politicians during the three months before election day…

Political marketing consultants and specialists immediately complained, and are still
complaining, alleging limitations to freedom of speech caused by the new law. Fifteen
years later,they are still trying to get rid of some of the limitations of this law,with some
partial results coming from their persistent lobbying, but without changes to the main
rules. For instance in 2004, they have managed to get a decision from the CSA granting
some leeway in the preparation of the free time allocated on official television
campaign programmes: for the first time, during that year’s European parliamentary The Evolution of French Political Communication: Reaching the Limits of Professionalisation?
elections, the French audiovisual regulatory board allowed political parties to shoot any
kind of spots they wanted for the free airtime given on the Public broadcast channels,
where they were previously forced to limit themselves to the restricted technical means
put at their disposal by the CSA.

But political marketing consultants did not really obtain any major change in the 1990 Law
for a simple reason:while it has indeed influenced the operating ways of the campaigns,it
has in fact increased the need for professionalisation of the campaigns, and therefore the
need for their help.While limiting the range of media that political campaigns can now use,
the application of the 1990 Law has led to more thorough and organised campaigns.It has
even increased the level of professionalisation by forcing politicians to redesign their
campaigns more thoroughly,in order to comply with the new Law.

In 1995 and 2002, two presidential campaigns have indeed unrolled with no real
technical hassle (not counting a plethora of campaigns for parliamentary or local 151