IRELAND'S Lisbon campaigns can stand justly accused of many charges but invisibility certainly isn't one of them.

In recent weeks, the nation's streets have been besieged by 100,000 posters swamping unsuspecting lampposts.

Our plasma screens have been invaded by eerie legless torsos urging people to "get the complete picture" ahead of the great vote.

Even the traditional safe havens of social networking websites have spawned mini Lisbon sites and become home to Lisbon ads.

And Sunday's Croke Park clash between Dublin and Louth couldn't escape the Lisbon blitz either, as an over flying plane tugged a banner urging 56,000 football fans to "Keep Europe off the pitch" .

Polling Day

With polling day finally upon us, it seems unlikely that a singe person could have missed the €6m frenzy surrounding what's been billed as the most significant referendum since Ireland joined the European Economic Community back in 1972.

But while the campaigns have been praised for their omni-presence they've also been dogged by criticism for failing to inform the electorate (largely the ad efforts of the Referendum Commission), muddying the water with patently inaccurate claims (chiefly Libertas) and shamelessly hawking politicians.

As the mammoth efforts draw to a close and all sides prepare to count their chickens tomorrow, how much of that €6m can be considered money well spent?

Referendum

Commission

With a total budget of €5m and €3.5m dedicated to public campaigning, the impartial Referendum Commission has made by far the largest financial investment in its Lisbon efforts.

Mandated to encourage people to vote and explain the issues involved, the commission's campaign was a professional affair from the start with public relations firm Murrays, creative agency DMA and buyers Carat, signed up to control the €3.5m spend.

"Get the complete picture" was picked as the campaign's tagline, inspiring €450,000 TV ads featuring legless torsos and torsoless limbs wandering around aimless until they happily re-unite with their partners having "gotten the complete picture".

Similar creativity played through the €580,000 outdoor ads and €180,000 worth of radio, while the €50,000 online spend delivered more detailed information on the referendum as did explanatory booklets winged to every Irish home.

While the "complete picture" ads were certainly memorable, a straw poll reveals most people found them deeply irritating.

As Mediaworks boss Paul Moran puts it, "anyone I've talked to about them has been scratching their heads saying 'what are we voting about?'".

"It's like the commission were trying to be too clever with what they were doing, but it doesn't work and they end up telling you absolutely nothing about the referendum itself," he adds.

Mark Brannock, Murray's pointman for the commission account, staunchly defends the fruits of his campaign's creative labour.

"The idea behind the TV ads and the outdoor is to drive people towards the information on the website or leaflets," he says.

"The Treaty isn't short and can't be explained on a poster or in a 30 second ad.

"If you had gone for three points at a time, or something like that, then you'd face accusations about bias based on the points you'd chosen."

As for the ultimate cost benefit analysis of the commission's efforts, Murrays et al will carry out research after the big day, but establishing how much their campaign influenced the turnout is a murky business, since a high turnout could equally be influenced by strong campaign from both sides.

Libertas

After the Referendum Commission, the next highest spend falls to Declan Ganley's anti-treaty Libertas group, which is claiming an outlay of close to €1.3m, though many suspect expenditure is far higher.

A substantial whack of Libertas' money has gone to a direct mail drop to about 1.3m households, along with 15,000 posters on lampposts nationwide.

Other elements have included a €10,000 investment in online "because it's there", ads .

The only medium to remain untouched is broadcast, thanks to regulations that forbid political ads on Irish radio or TV, "a bit of a nuisance", to quote a Libertas spokesman.

Unlike the Referendum Commission, Libertas has kept it in the family when it comes to creative, PR and media buying, with two inhouse communications officials doing the work themselves.

Despite Libertas' belief that online channels like Bebo and Facebook have yet to be mastered by any Irish campaign, Libertas' own website is now generating 2,500 to 3,000 a day.

Libertas has gotten maximum value from their posters by putting them up just two weeks ahead of polling day, some two weeks after the political parties had erected theirs.

"Research shows posters become wallpaper after two weeks, so we wanted to make sure ours were really noticed for the important two weeks," the spokesman says.

Timing aside, the unconventional posters have been hailed as some of the most inventive of the campaign, thanks to montages of monkeys warning the post-Lisbon EU "won't see you, won't hear you, won't speak for you" and Dustin the turkey quipping that as Europe said no to us so we can say no to them.

But while Libertas posters have been eye-catching, some have also been slammed as downright inaccurate, in particular those warning of the tax implications of Lisbon, when there is none.

But the rhetoric used isn't what's worrying Libertas in the run-up to the deliverance day.

"My one regret would be that we peaked a little bit too early," admits one spokesman.

"At the middle of last week, we were at a high, if we lose by a narrow margin it'll be because we timed the campaign a little bit wrong."

The political parties

The third big spending force has been the major political parties, cumulatively splashing out more than €1.5m on their campaigns.

Fianna Fail has been the biggest spender, with an estimated outlay of €650,000 to €700,000, though director of elections Sean Dorgan won't talk numbers.

Dorgan does confirm his party has been behind some 40,000 posters (15,000 nationally themed and 25,000 local versions).

Other Fianna Fail efforts include dropping leaflets to Ireland's 1.8m households, distributing 65,000 separate leaflets to members, mobilising 10,000 campaigners nationwide and setting up a website (www.vote4europe.ie) that's had seen 70,000 hits since February.

With a spend of about €500,000, Fine Gael had the next most expensive campaign, although an unknown amount of this funding came through the party's European grouping the EEP-ED.

Key features of the FG campaign included 25,000 lamppost posters, many prominently featuring leader Enda Kenny and other representatives, as well as 300 "six sheets (bus shelters etc) and 600 4X4 billboards.

In response to questions about the prominence of politicians, a spokesman said the representatives were seen as "ambassadors for the promition of the Lisbon Treaty", stressing that the issues of the treaty were also covered by the posters.

With a budget of €200,000, Labour spent "the lion's share" on 10,000 posters, director of elections' Joe Costello says.

Once again, politicians feature prominently. "It's a means of making sure public representatives get out there and canvass, it's giving them an incentive," he says, with honesty that's a rarity in politics.

Other Labour initiatives include 40,000 leaflets, 60,000 pamphlets, a "very active website", and a video competition offering prize money to students who devise to a 2 minute video on the pros of a 'Yes' vote.

"There wasn't much more we could have done, but we were very disappointed the Government didn't take the same approach as us," says Costello.

"We were out there from mid December when the treaty was signed, but the Government seemed frozen until March."

Sinn Fein, the only major political party flying the No flag, has €120,000 in its kitty, including €20,000 from the party's European grouping GUENGL.

Based around the idea that Ireland can "get a better deal", the campaign's 10,000 posters bring the national total to 100,000, while 500,000 Sinn Fein-inspired leaflets have also found their way nationwide.

Thankfully, for the bombarded public at least, the Green Party has erected not a single poster and or sent a single leaflet, since a January vote narrowly failed to secure the 66pc majority needed for the party to formally endorse the treaty.