The U.S. political advertising experts were responding to Hill Times questions about Mr. Trudeau’s (Papineau, Que.) plan to counter with positive reactions to ads such as one the Conservatives launched on prime time Canadian TV space Wednesday night that attempts to portray Mr. Trudeau in a whimsical manner, through with a slow-motion video of him performing a mock strip tease during a fundraising event for the Canadian Liver Foundation two years ago, and which mocks his experience as a secondary school teacher and other occupations he held prior to becoming an MP in 2008.
Brian Berry, chief creative officer for the Republican-associated The Strategy Group for Media, was surprised when The Hill Times told him the Liberals posted a positive low-key ad in response, featuring Mr. Trudeau in a high school classroom, focusing on how Canadians can “pull together a get to work” instead of “mistrusting and finding faults in each other.”
Told that Mr. Trudeau has promised he won’t stoop to attack ads against Prime Minister Stephen Harper (Calgary Southwest, Alta.) in response to the Conservative assault, Mr. Berry said he appreciates the classroom setting, considering the demeaning portrayal of Mr. Trudeau’s two years of experience at teaching, but said the Liberals have to put more muscle in their ads if they want to dent the Conservative plan to introduce Mr. Trudeau to Canadians with the image they want.
“In a serious setting, classroom, that’s not bad, but oh my heavens, an attack always merits a response,” Mr. Berry said in a telephone interview from Austin, Texas. “You can have a ‘We’re not going to respond in kind,’ but you’ve got to put meat on the bones, you have to counter.”
Clay Schossow, a partner and project manager at the Democrat-associated ad strategy firm of New Media Campaigns, told The Hill Times that U.S. President Barrack Obama’s first-term battle against Republican campaigns claiming he was not born in the United States is “a great example of showing that even the most ludicrous attack possible, and a politician trying to stay above it, they still eventually get pulled into the fray.”
After three years trying to ignore the allegations and demands for proof of his birth in Hawaii, President Obama eventually produced a copy of his birth certificate.
“Even though he stayed above it for a while, he eventually had to call a White House press conference and show his long-form birth certificate,” Mr. Shossow said. “That’s something he was against doing for two or three years, but they kept hammering him on it, the noise got so loud, and it was activating a dangerous and rabid part of the conservative base, that he had no choice but to eventually respond to it and put it to rest and even then, ultimately he didn’t put it fully to rest, but it certainly helped.”
“It could be said that had he responded sooner, some of that conservative base might not have been as active or that noise wouldn’t have been there in the media,” Mr. Schossow said in a telephone interview from North Carolina.
Mr. Schossow and Mr. Berry, though their firms cater to political clients on opposing sides of the U.S. political spectrum, said if the federal Conservatives successfully implant a view of Mr. Trudeau they want to weld into Canadian voters’ minds, it will only become more difficult to change as time passes between now and the next Canadian federal general election in 2015.
“I think it’s always important to respond, even against attacks you feel are below you, because once they start to get play in the media cycle, get watched on the internet, get more ad time bought, people might say that it’s not affecting them, but when it’s defining them it really is making a difference, so it’s important to respond to those right away,” said Mr. Schossow, whose firm’s clients included some of the most high-profile Democrat Congressional election campaigns in 2012.
“Unfortunately, it’s a sad truth, but it is true that negative ads work and they certainly resonate with voters and voters remember them, and something that holds true, and what lot of parties and candidates like to do is define the opponent before they can define themselves,” he told The Hill Times.
Mr. Berry, who is up to date on Canadian politics and Mr. Trudeau’s election to the Liberal leadership, cited one of the Conservative ads that portrays a 1999 statement Mr. Trudeau, age 28 at the time, made suggesting he believed his fellow Quebecers were “better” than other Canadians. Mr. Trudeau said the day he returned to Parliament earlier this month as Liberal leader that he has since learned a better way to express his views about his home province.
“Remember, the Conservatives put some pretty important points out there, and the voters will say ‘Yeah, that’s nice Justin, you’re a teacher, but what about ‘Quebecers are better than the rest of Canada?’ You can’t ignore it,” said Mr. Berry, whose firm’s web site says the company elected more new Republican members of the U.S. Congress in the past decade than any other ad firm.
“It’s just like if in your own house, you have a leaky pipe and you don’t pay attention to it, that pipe is going to blow and burst and flood your home,” Mr. Berry said. “The same thing applies to politicians, if they have a problem in their own house, if they have an issue that they are not addressing, then that issue is going to get larger and larger until it blows up.”
Ironically, one of the recent occasions during which Mr. Trudeau reiterated his leadership campaign pledge to avoid divisive politics and attacks against his opponents was during an interview last week with CBC The National news anchor Peter Mansbridge, on the day of the Boston Marathon bombings that killed three people and injured more than 170.
Mr. Harper and the Conservative party attacked Mr. Trudeau for a few sentences from his response to a question from Mr. Mansbridge about what he would do in response to the bombings if he were prime minister.
Mr. Harper continued to ridicule Mr. Trudeau on Thursday for saying part of the aftermath would have to include getting to the root causes of the attack, although the new Liberal leader had made it clear during the interview, conducted only two hours after the bombings but aired the next day, that no one knew whether it was the result of the actions of one person or more, or whether it was a terrorist attack or related to domestic or international issues. Mr. Trudeau also explained the immediate response would include condolences and offers of any medical or other emergency help the Americans and those hurt in the attack needed.
Earlier in the interview, Mr. Trudeau, responding to a question from Mr. Mansbridge about how he would respond to inevitable Conservative attack ads, said he would not stoop to the same “cynical” tactic in return and, among other things, added: “Every political theorist can tell you that, yes, negative attack ads work. Mr. Harper has a majority government today because of the politics of negativity and division. It’s not about lifting Mr. Harper up; it’s about beating down everyone else. Even if attack ads work, we can’t get to where we need to go through using them.”
Liberal MP Rodger Cuzner (Cape Breton-Canso, N.S.) told The Hill Times that Mr. Trudeau is determined his approach will win over Canadians as the next general election nears.
“He’s a tough guy, but he’s made his pledge to stay positive and keep it on the high road, and that’s not a hollow boast, he is committed to doing that,” Mr. Cuzner said. “He thinks that he can reengage Canadians who have been disaffected from the entire process, who have just got a bad taste in their mouth about how politics has been drifting toward the American-style, Republican attack ads.”
“I think he can inspire people to pay attention again and have hope, so he’s committed to that and I respect that view,” said Mr. Cuzner. “If we think it’s over, from the Conservative standpoint, this is just the appetizer, it will get dirtier, more offensive, that’s what we can expect going forward.”
Original Article
Source: hilltimes.com
Author: TIM NAUMETZ
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