Anitta bans use of her image for political ads

Anitta endorsed former President Lula in the 2022 elections. Photo: Celso Pupo/Shutterstock

After endorsing former President and frontrunner Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva in the October presidential elections, Brazilian singer Anitta has warned Lula’s Workers’ Party that it must refrain from using her name or image as part of its political ads.

Anitta, a pop star phenomenon with 17.7 million Twitter followers, announced her support for Lula on social media last week. Two days later, she posted a picture of herself wearing red leggings – the signature color of the Workers’ Party – with the party’s initials ‘PT’ and Lula’s name superimposed on the image.

The photo was from the clip of rapper Filipe Ret’s new song ‘Tudo Nosso,’ in which Anitta features.

But, just three days after that, Anitta said she was neither a member nor supporter of the Workers’ Party and had not given permission for her name or image to be used to promote the party and its candidates.

“My choice in these elections has been to bring engagement and media [attention] to the person who has the highest chances of beating Voldemort in these elections. After much research, the conclusion is that that person is Lula,” Anitta wrote on Twitter, referring to far-right President Jair Bolsonaro as the evil wizard in the Harry Potter series.

Anitta repeated her promise to use her social media clout to help Lula’s campaign and avoid a second Bolsonaro term for Brazil – but warned the Workers’ Party to not use her image without permission.

“Do not use my name and image to promote your party or candidate because whoever does that will get dumped immediately,” the pop star wrote on Twitter. Lula replied via his official account: “Anitta, indeed you only declared your support for me and I know that you are not a petista.”

“So let’s go, Dumbledore … defending Slytherin for democracy,” Anitta replied.