Wednesday, January 25, 2006
Best. Political. Ad . Ever. I'm Not Making This Up.
By now the Canadian elections are over, but this is a gem that can't be passed up, and deserves a place of honor in the Negative Ad Hall of (S)Hame.
Conservative candidate Stephen Harper stated that he wanted to post at least 100 soldiers and 400 reservists in Canada's major cities so that they would be there to deal with natural disasters or terrorist attacks. The Liberal Party soon responded with this simple ad, consisting of a stern female voice-over and martial drums:
Stephen Harper actually announced that he wants to increase military presence in our cities. Canadian cities. Soldiers with guns. In our cities. In Canada. We did not make this up.The staccato delivery of these lines does little to drive the point home, but rather makes the whole thing seem even more ridiculous. In fact, it has led to a snowstorm of parody and satires.
That's about the most blatant scare tactic I've ever seen. And so inaccurate. The only Canadians interested in building a military dictatorship were Generals Clair and Jenny, and even their bid for world domination exists solely as pale, mirrored shadow mirror of their original, brilliant site, whose glory can now only glimpsed through the Internet Archives.
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