Have you seen any of the new ads the NDP are airing on television to introduce their new leader to Canadians?
I saw the English-language ad on Sportsnet Monday night at the end of the Blue Jays-Red Sox game. Here it is:
The English ad looks well-produced. We’d heard, even before the NDP leadership convention, that the party planned to run ads to promote their leader. If you take a look at this ad, the party could have shot and edited every part of the ad before the convention and then tacked on a bit of voiceover at the beginning “Canada’s got a new leader: Tom Mulcair” and the 10 seconds towards the end with Mulcair actually in the ad. You’ll notice neither Olivia Chow nor any of the actors in ad actually mention Mulcair by name. That middle segment, then, would have worked, then if it started “Canada’s got a new leader: Brian Topp”. Nothing wrong with that pre-production, of course, but I’m not sure what viewers at the end of it are supposed to think of Mulcair. I think the takeaway is that this new leader that Canada’s got is the guy who is supposed to beat Stephen Harper.
UPDATE: And Olivia Chow just tweeted at me to say:
And whoever is behind the Twitter account for Forum Research (@ForumResearch) reminds me via Twitter that CBC online reporter Meagan Fitzpatrick had the script of the above ad — including Chow’s contribution — before the convention ended.
The French-language ad, which began airing last week, on the other hand, doesn’t mention Harper and is all Mulcair. No actors. No voice-over. Just Mulcair presenting himself, first, as the natural heir to Jack Layton — that would be the whole rolling-up-the-sleeves thing – “On continue” – and then presenting himself to Quebec voters as an incumbent would. Neat trick to remind voters that the last time they were in a polling booth for a federal election, a heckuva lot of them voted for the orange team.
What do you think of the NDP ads?
Are all those actors unionized?
I’m a Saskatchewan Anglo, and I much prefer the French ad. French Mulcair is a confident leader who doesn’t have to say he’s going to take on Harper…you know he’s going to. English Mulcair is full of platitudes and the obligatory NDP royalty (Chow).
The ads are solid. What is the agensa with forum et al trying to make something from the fact the NDP was actually prepared with their ad content. I read into what they are saying that some kind of fix was in. They re-tweeted about a dozen times trying to stir up a reaction. I guess I was the only one that bit.