Spain's Equality Ministry launches new campaign that sparks backlash on X

Spain's Ministry of Equality has released a new institutional campaign that has spread on X alongside criticism. The specific content of the materials and their budget are not detailed in the post that made it go viral.

The Ministry of Equality has rolled out a new communication campaign. The piece has reached thousands of users through a post on X that presents it as "the Ministry of Equality's latest campaign" and that has drawn a wave of critical replies. The exact content of the materials, the budget and the contracted reach do not appear in that post.

## What is known about the campaign and what is not

The post that has given the campaign visibility merely shows the material and identifies it with the department in charge of the Equality portfolio. It includes no investment figures, no name of the agency that designed it, and no planned broadcast period. Nor does it clarify whether this is a full campaign or a standalone piece within a larger initiative.

That lack of data matters. Government campaigns are funded with public money and their contracting goes through tender procedures which, in the case of the central state administration, are published on the Public Sector Contracting Platform. Without that information, any cost estimate is mere guesswork.

## The framework for government campaigns

Institutional advertising campaigns are regulated by Law 29/2005 of 29 December, which requires that their content neither incite violence nor discriminate, and that they be clearly identified as government communication. The law also requires reporting to Parliament on annual advertising spending.

The debate over the cost of these campaigns is nothing new. Every year, ministry budgets include items for outreach, and those figures have become a recurring target of parliamentary scrutiny. Public discussion often mixes the content of the message with the appropriateness of the spending, two separate issues that are best kept apart.

## Why a piece like this spreads so widely

Equality Ministry campaigns have a history of heavy media exposure. Their messages on gender violence, shared domestic responsibility or the pay gap have drawn both support and rejection, which makes them prone to going viral. A post with a screenshot or a fragment can reach a larger audience than the original campaign.

It is worth remembering that the spread of a fragment on social media does not equal the campaign as a whole. Without access to the complete materials and the contracting documentation, what circulates is a portion of the material, not the entire institutional campaign.