As a self-confessed MacIntosh fan, a Conservative, and as someone who’s spent my entire professional career working in the advertising and communication industry I think I’m qualified to comment on the newly released videos now appearing on the Liberal.ca website:
So far the Liberals have posted 3 videos, and I’m sure they’re wringing their hands and giggling to themselves as they think of all the ways they can extend this “hilarious” attack campaign further.
Quite shockingly the official press release that appears on the Liberal web site makes no mention of the Apple ads they mimic, stating rather:
Following a concept suggestion to the Liberal Party website, Youth National Director Scott Pickup spearheaded the idea’s implementation. The Young Liberals wanted to try something outside the mainstream.
So what’s wrong with these ads? Let me start a list:
1. Creatively they are shameless rip-offs of Apple’s much more sophisticated (and original) series of ads.
I doubt Apple will take any legal action but I could see them making a case that the Liberal ads will cause some damage to Apple’s brand. Originality has value in the minds of consumers, and the Liberal ads will dilute the perception that Apple was the original creator. Apple could also lose favour among it’s many Conservative customers if it stands by and allows the Liberal ads to air. At a minimum a symbolic “slap on the wrist” would be in order.
2. While non-Conservatives will likely find the ads funny, the ads are still “negative attack ads”, and as I’ve already noted, the Liberals have very vocally stated they would not “go negative” in their ad campaigns. So much for that promise.
3. The stereotype the ads employ to portray the “typical Conservative” is shallow and insulting. What the Liberals have failed to pick up on in the Apple ads is that the “PC” character is representing a machine, and machines don’t get insulted and don’t vote. The Liberals are making fun of millions of Canadians who consider themselves “Conservative”. Please, keep up the good work.
4. The factual content presented in the Liberal ads is … well … not factual. In addition to making the false claim that the Conservatives cut $5 Billion from environment spending, the following is sheer lunacy:
[It's not too difficult] to stop sea levels from rising … see, you just have to reduce carbon emissions, follow Kyoto, impose a carbon budget, don’t let industries emit more than their share, try and get Canadians to reduce power consumption.
While the scientific community is quite clearly split on the extent and the cause of global warming and sea level rise, on one position there is virtually unanimous agreement: Canada can have little to no impact on the changes to sea level.
But even though the Liberals did nothing over the last 13 years, they would now like you to believe “It’s not too difficult – just vote us back into power.” Yup, and if you buy that line I’ve got some magic beans here I’d like to sell you.
