Is it just me, or are there fewer campaign commercials in this year's federal election? I mean, they're on TV a lot, but there's only a few actual ads that they're repeating over and over. It could be that they've had to conserve money on this eight-month campaign. The NDP is really holding back; I fear they're just fattening the war chest so they can carpet-bomb the airwaves in the final days before the election.
The Liberals are just repeating one ad over and over. Like a lot of their recent material, the message seems to be that they're in favour of the middle class, so they've got policies that are great for the middle class, because they're the party of the middle class. That seems an odd strategy: their competitors are focused on target demographics, while they have the reputation as Canada's Natural Governing Party, so surely they would benefit from portrayal as the party that serves everyone.
Other than that, the ad is good, though I have the feeling that some spin doctor at Liberal Headquarters is panicking over the fact that Canada's picture of the Liberal leader is of a man going up the down escalator.
The Conservatives have, in recent years, been highly focused in their marketing. That is, they choose the people they are most likely to win over, and concentrate on them instead of wasting time on broad appeals to everyone. That leads to some strange-looking commercials, like that one where people are talking about why they're voting Conservative, and all the featured voters are either seniors or farmers.
But there hasn't been anything as surreal in this campaign, as their "job application" ads. The concept is actually kind of clever, but like a lot of political advertising, it suffers because a smart, slightly humourous premise gets played for viciousness rather than comedy.
It also suffers from limitations unique to the circumstance. For a while now, the Conservatives have been the best party at fundraising, and thus has more money to play with than the other parties (which is why they run ads even between elections.) But even with all the money in the world, you still have the problem of finding actors and other creative people willing to work for the Tories.
But that Conservative targeting also makes it weirder than it should be. It's a surreal idea to begin with, a small office HR committee hiring a Prime Minister. But worse, it has to take place in the parallel universe where Conservative wedge issues are people's main concerns. You know, a place where it's just assumed that you make your vote based primarily on the candidate's response to ISIS. So it may ring a false note to most of us, but it's all careful calculation by the Tory brain trust. At least I'm assuming: they've had to modify it to add a "Justin Trudeau: Just Not Ready" banner across the bottom of the screen, apparently concerned that spot is a little too subtle.
But the funny part is that in ridiculing Trudeau for being soft on terror, they mention his plan to send winter jackets to Syria. That probably sounded like a withering insult at the time the commercial first started airing (2007, if memory serves.) But now that the plight of Syrian refugees has become a global concern, sending winter coats to Syria actually sounds like a good idea. It will probably appeal to more people than sending troops over, so the Liberals should thank the Conservatives for publicizing the policy for them.
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