The Vice President of Castilla y León, Juan García-Gallardo (Vox) is going to take advantage this Monday of the institutional publicity that he usually insults to sneak into prime time on Spanish Television. Specifically, she will appear in the premiere of the seventh season of MasterChef Celebrity. According to the regional government, it will have “excellent quality guests: agri-food products covered by the Tierra de Sabor guarantee brand”.
What the Junta de Castilla y León does not say is that the “guests”, that is, the location of Tierra de Sabor products, has nothing to do with quality, but with what the Ministry of Agriculture, Livestock and Farming pays. Rural Development, so that they are in the Real Sitio de la Granja de San Ildefonso (Segovia), where the program is recorded. The Board has been paying for advertising placements in MasterChef for years, at least since 2018 and at a price of 14,900 euros per program.
But this time there will be a two-for-one, with the presence of the only regional vice president that the far-right party has. It is not the first time that MasterChef, produced by RTVE in collaboration with Shine Iberia, has politicians in special programs. Before their cameras have been the mayor of Madrid, José Luis Martínez-Almeida or the mayor of Barcelona, Ada Colau. The presence of councilors is also common, there were also last year the Basque Minister of Tourism, Commerce and Consumption, the socialist Javier Hurtado, or the Minister of Agriculture and Livestock in Castilla y León, Jesús Julio Carnero.
This Monday it will not be the Minister of Agriculture, Gerardo Dueñas (Vox) who will try the menu along with a hundred guests. Vox will take advantage of the showcase and the 14,900 euros to promote García-Gallardo. The vice president has always denied institutional advertising and subsidies to the media and since his arrival in the regional government he has threatened to apply a significant cut that has not materialized in the Board’s media plan so far .
land of flavor
The guarantee mark for agri-food products of differentiated quality from Castilla y León currently has more than 900 companies and nearly 6,000 products carry the yellow heart on their labels.
Tierra de Sabor was one of the tricks played by the former Minister of Agriculture, Silvia Clemente, before making the unsuccessful jump to the ranks of Ciudadanos. With the excuse of promoting food from Castilla y León, Tierra de Sabor became a political catwalk that was used to gain media presence.
www.eldiario.es