It was puzzling to see a defence of attack advertising in today’s Toronto Star. They must have been reaching for that one but we wondered where they found the person to write it. After reading what this person had to say, the next step was to check out his blog. That was not too interesting but what he wrote about himself was. The following is what he put there about himself:
“Gerry Nicholls is a communications consultant and writer who has been called a “political warrior” a “brilliant strategist” and one of the “canniest political observers in Canada.” He has worked as a consultant in both the United States and Canada and was formerly a senior officer in the National Citizens Coalition. A regular columnist with the Ottawa Hill Times, his work has also appeared in the Globe and Mail, the National Post and in the Sun Media chain; and he has appeared on countless TV and radio public affairs programs. He is the author of the book, Loyal to the Core, Harper, Me and the NCC.”
Wow. This new breed of communications consultant seems to have little use for modesty.
His problem in his article “In praise of negative ads,” is that he thinks positive ads are typically “emotionally manipulative and intellectually vacuous.” He is probably right—about positive ads by the Conservative party.
On February 15, Babel-on-the-bay had this to say about political advertising:
“The truth is that attack ads are the easiest to write. That is why politicians like to use them. All you do is take a seed of what people think about someone and plant it in enough muck to grow something bigger. These ads are for the lazy.
“The tough ads are the honest ones. They are where you, metaphorically, look the viewer in the eye and tell the truth. It is the type of advertising that has to reach out to the viewer and share a depth of understanding and empathy. The good ads have to be credible, believable, endearing, honest and open. And they do all that in 20, 30 or 60 seconds.
“Americans like to use attack ads because they have a two party system. The times when they have a credible third party running, they do not know what to do. If you try to paint a negative image of an opponent in a multi-party campaign, you might have no idea which of the remaining parties will benefit.”
Mr. Nicholls tells us in his article that attack ads often raise issues that people really care about. That does not explain the current flight of Conservative party ads attacking Liberal Interim Leader Bob Rae. The ads are scurrilous, untrue, sleazy and seem to have no purpose other than to defame an opponent. It is quite a stretch to suggest that people in Canada really care about that.
He concludes by asking “isn’t informing voters what political ads should be all about?” That would be a novelty from his political party!
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Copyright 2012 © Peter Lowry
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