Monday, January 29, 2007

Attack Ads Ranked

Although people claim to hate attack ads, the truth is they just dislike bad ones. If they are done properly they can be quite effective. Here's my take on the Conservative's new ads attacking Stephane Dion:

  1. Back to Power: Absolutely Terrible. All it has is Stephane saying "we need to go back to power." Of course he does, so what? Second the headlines are old, the Conservatives will need to campaign on their record not the former governments.
  2. Clean Up the Environment: Passable. The topic is fair, the Liberals had an abysmal record on the environment. This ad would be much better as a compare and contrast style. Again the Conservatives will be judged on their record and they had better define themselves.
  3. Not a Leader: Good. This is definitely the best of the three ads, I hope they play it heavily. It's fun. I showed it around the office and it makes Dion look helpless: "This is unfair! This is unfair! Do you think it's easy to make priorities?" I love it. It's so much fun.

Overall, I don't think the ads are good enough to justify the bad press the conservatives have already received, but now that they're out there, I hope the party plays the best two heavily and leaves the other on the shelf.

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