Whilst partisan competition has fuelled the expansion of social assistance across much of Africa, social assistance has generally been a valence issue. In Malawi, unusually, the competing presidential candidates and their parties in the 2014 election staked out starkly contrasting positions on social assistance as part of their attempted supra-regional and supra-ethnic political ‘branding’. The incumbent president, Joyce Banda, championed social assistance for women, children, and the poor, whilst her rivals denounced ‘handouts’ and emphasized instead economic growth and support for peasant farmers. Banda’s defeat suggests that there are limits to the efficacy of social assistance for political branding. Nonetheless, the fact that she used this brand at all suggests that social assistance has grown in political significance as an expression of pro-poor priorities.