4 October 2008

Political TV Ads the Good the Bad & the Ugly

| SwingingVoter
Join the conversation
15

We are under a barrage of Political TV ads. I thought it time to rate some of them under the heading The Good The Bad & The Ugly. Yes I am biased I will be voting liberal this time after many years of labor.

Lets start with the Ugly:

All the Labor ads that I have seen so far – just more arrogance and boring just too many numbers thrown at me.

Val Jefferies – nice man horrible ad

Gary Kent Liberal – What can I say – did he pay for these and who wrote them – is he really that short?

Richard Mulcahy – Looks like a shifty used car salesman.

Steve Doszpot -probably the same production company that did Kents – appalling same slogan as last time.

Giulia Jones – Giulia with a “G” please give me a break. The most annoying ad on TV at the moment.

The Bad

Brendan Smyth – I nealy fell asleep

Alistair Coe – did you really play football, who cares.

Andrea Tokaji – If I was a dyke I would go for her big time. What a honey, my husband wanted to move electorates to vote for her.

Jacqui Meyers – You nealy made it to The Good but stealing a line from a Booze ad drops you down 1 place

The Good

Zed and everything Zed – I hope his wife knows that he is the sex symbol for the Liberal Party prrrrrrrrr

Mark Parton – Does this man know TV ads or what.

Jeremy Hanson – I like military men (bit toffy though)

David Morgan – This is the funniest ad at the moment – Kick him again – I can’t stop watching it

Belinda Barnier – Probably the most sensible political ad. She seems pretty Genuine.

MY VOTE GOES TO: David Morgan, giving Stanhope a kick, only because he lives in my electorate and he has the funniest ad.

Meg

Join the conversation

15
All Comments
  • All Comments
  • Website Comments
LatestOldest

Katy’s ad is wierd – she is unblinking and looks so low key she might be medicated.

I don’t think any of the ads are very good. Next time around the minor parties need to plan their campaign well before the election, and get some marketing advice.

disenfranchised8:10 am 05 Oct 08

Kent’s ad is utterly hopeless. He will soon discover that being a party official with a napoleonic complex does not translate into being known (read trusted) in the community. His problem is half the card carrying Liberals in Molonglo have long memories and simply won’t give him a sniff of a vote. It is politics 101. Lose your base and you have no base. Liberal central seems to be saying to new candidates to come up with a silly gimmick. Remember the success Helen Cross – a former Liberal- had with “…don’t put a tick put a cross”. It is a foolish attempt to mimic and capture that success. Labor will form a minority government. They will strike a deal with the Greens. Who will be the Liberals next leader?

It would be nice if ads attacking the other candidates and parties were banned and they were only allowed to advertise what they were going to do themselves.

Trust me – Gary Kent is that short. Possibly even shorter (I haven’t seen the ad so I can’t tell you if he was standing on a phone book or using some sort of LOTR focus tricks)

Gee, remind me again why we have a secret ballot? Oh, that’s right! So we can have a democracy ….

Sounds like you’ve decided which way to swing….

Yeah, I love that too.

I don’t particularly like the Labor ads, but at least they’re somewhat positive and talk about what they’re going to do. The only message I get from Lib ads is they’re going to construct an animatronic Stanhope/football head and then kick it. Not such a bad idea I ‘spose, but is this going to talk place at Bruce Stadium? The hubris would be too much.

Vic Bitterman10:35 am 04 Oct 08

ant said :

I like that one where they have a really dodgey picture of Stanhope’s head, going “rarrrarrrarrrarrrarr”. The kick bit isn’t quite as funny, but the first bit is. I don’t know who it’s for, but apparently he’s a “better fellah for Brindabella”.

That’s David Morgan’s advert.

I would rather Jon Stanhope than Jeremy Hanson.

I like that one where they have a really dodgey picture of Stanhope’s head, going “rarrrarrrarrrarrrarr”. The kick bit isn’t quite as funny, but the first bit is. I don’t know who it’s for, but apparently he’s a “better fellah for Brindabella”.

What about Mike Hettinger’s radio ads? He is obviously trying to split from the ALP. He does seem greener than the average apparatchik. I bet HQ has been yelling at him.

Belinda Barnier seems to be one of the few people who has made the connection between her credentials and getting elected – it’s a good ad, if not as entertaining as David Morgan’s! As for Giulia with a G, what a whinger – I agree it’s the most annoying ad in this election’s history, possible ever. Jeremy Hanson has a lot of appeal – seems very capable and there’s something about a man in uniform that inspires confidence. Normally vote liberal but still undecided as I’m new to the ACT.

Jonathon Reynolds7:31 am 04 Oct 08

I tend to look at the advertisements from a different perspective – production values and how it delivers the particular message.

There is no doubt that the ALP advertisements (for the most part) are ultra slick and they clearly standout from the rest of the crowd. Each of these adverts have been carefully scripted, the production values are exceptionally high and they just look professional.

The core Liberal candidate advertisements are more formulaic, consistent music, consistent visuals, obviously done more on the cheap. The catch phrases are for the most part crass and corny, but the serve the desired effect because silly things like “Vote for Clinton from the white house” tend to stick in your mind (At the Liberal preselection Clinton actually explained the history to how that slogan came about so I guess its a bit of an in joke). They lose points for the adverts of Alistair Coe and Vicki Dunne where Zed does the voiceover and you never hear the candidate actually speak – from a marketing perspective a voter might think what do these individuals have to hide that we don’t hear them speak. The problem with the Liberal advertisements is that the are obviously consistent but as SwingingVoter has already pointed out a few of the adverts – Gary Kent and Steve Doszpot are slightly different to the rest of the teams (it shows where the schisms are within the party)

Huge points off to both the ALP and Liberals for their attack adverts. The anti adverts are based on a black background, red and white text. The ALP appear to be copying the Federal Liberals anti unionist style adverts with a local spin where as the Liberals had the early (very well produced) “you had your chance” series and have now degenerated to the more serious silent “angry” Stanhope.

The Greens have to be given points for trying. They have obviously tried to put together a professional looking advert for the lead candidates. It almost works, except it appears a bit too hammed up. Nice bright visuals, no negative messages, you hear the candidates speak. Reminds me a bit of the opening scenes from “Iron Chef” (Where the chefs rise from below the stage) they way they are each holding something “environmental” at the end of the advert.

I was disappointed with the CAP adverts I have seen for Norvan Vogt. The production values are shocking and unfortunately Norvan attempts to turn on his usual campaign theatrics (unsuccessfully). I like Norvan, but when you see him perform at Candidate events his use of theatrics is cranked up too high, it is the same in his adverts. That being said I have seen Norvan present well when he wants to… just don’t mention the three toed sloths again Norv!. On the flip side Val Jeffrey does a very good cranky old man routine. Given that I have never seen Val out on the campaign trail (I don’t think he even bothers to attend candidate/election events at all) I can’t compare him against live performances.

The AMP adverts are obviously done on the cheap. That being said they are a single issue party. From memory, none of the candidates actually appear in their advertisements. For an election system where name recognition is vital they arent doing themselves any favours.

Helen Cross’s advertisements come across as if she has a chip on her shoulder and she is out to prove something (but I not sure what). I’m not sure that the voters really want an over the top dose of Helen’s me me me me… Helen does have name recognition, but in summary her current adverts are no where near catchy lacking the slogan she ran last campaign “Don’t put a tick or a cross in the box, put a 1 by Helen Cross”

Mark Parton’s advert is being produced by the same people who are doing the CAP adverts (the same company that does Jim Murphy’s – “enjoy the good times”) You have to remember that Mark is working off his name recognition and people (at least 18% of the population based on Neilsen radio ratings from late last year) being able to recognise his voice. It doesn’t matter that his advert is nothing to look at with its bright purple background, he has his smooth “velvety” radio voice to leverage.

One of Richard Mulchay’s Canberra party adverts does have overtones of “Star Wars” at the beginning.. the adverts that Richard are running are very old style and traditional in nature. This clearly reflects where he is targeting his efforts towards the conservative (disaffected Liberal) voters. Production qualities are low, but he does the “in front of a book case full of important looking books with pictures of the family” thing well. He is very stiff in his delivery, but Richard is always stiff in his delivery so its real to life.

Have to say I was not really impressed with Norvan Vogt’s ad – dobts himself straight up – what are your plans Norvan. I don’t wat to know about what you don’t know I want to know what you are going to do.

I know the independants aren’t operating with the same budget as the big parties but give yourself a rap.

Daily Digest

Want the best Canberra news delivered daily? Every day we package the most popular Riotact stories and send them straight to your inbox. Sign-up now for trusted local news that will never be behind a paywall.

By submitting your email address you are agreeing to Region Group's terms and conditions and privacy policy.