Flavio Bolsonaro’s ‘corrupto’ stunt sparks viral meme before Brazil election runoff
Flávio Bolsonaro's attempt to label his political rival as 'corrupt' during a televised debate backfired when social media users turned the stunt into a viral parody. Supporters of his opponent, Lula da Silva, flooded platforms with photos of their own palms labeled with their professions to mock the gesture.
Why it matters
This incident highlights the power of social media in modern political discourse to subvert traditional campaign messaging and turn negative attacks into grassroots counter-movements.
Flávio Bolsonaro during last Sunday’s televised presidential debate. Photograph: Allison Sales/NurPhoto/Shutterstock Flávio Bolsonaro during last Sunday’s televised presidential debate. Photograph: Allison Sales/NurPhoto/Shutterstock Brazil Flavio Bolsonaro’s ‘corrupto’ stunt sparks viral meme before Brazil election runoff Far-right presidential candidate’s TV debate swipe at rival backfires as people take to social media to parody it
Prefer the Guardian on Google To Flávio Bolsonaro and his publicists, it must have seemed an ingenious idea that would expose his rival’s supposed crookedness on the eve of Brazil’s presidential election.
But the far-right politician’s decision to attend a primetime television debate against his leftwing opponent, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva , with the word “corrupto” (corrupt) written on the palm of his hand has backfired.
Rather than drawing attention to the incumbent’s alleged misdeeds, many of the programme’s millions of viewers sarcastically took Bolsonaro’s hand-written message as an admission of his own guilt.
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