Thursday, January 27, 2011

From the party who brought you a puffin pooping on Stephane Dion...

...come two of the most ridiculous political ads of the last decade.





It's one thing to take quotes and clips out of context. It's another to take them out of context in the way Rick Mercer would. Just because you're able to splice something together in 48 hours, and just because you have the money to air them, and just because it's funny to four frat boys in the CPC war room, it doesn't mean you need to do it.

But that's not what makes these ads ridiculous.

What makes them ridiculous is the Tories are running up against a guy who is seen as an aloof, wooden university professor. So they show clips of him fired up, full of passion.

Is that a dumb move? Let's ask Michael Ignatieff...


UPDATE: And the Tories pull the ads. I'm sure you'll all join me in a hearty round of "YES! YES! YES!"

posted by calgarygrit at 3:32 p.m.

16 Comments:

  • What makes it ridiculous is that Harper swears they are not campaigning, and don't want an election, yet they are showing campaign ads in anticipation of an election. Its like a self fulfilling prophecy, which makes it all the more obvious that Harper actually wants an election.

    By Blogger Martin, at 4:07 p.m.  

  • At least the Conservatives are showing Ignatieff. The Libs deliberately chose not to mention him in their ads.

    I recall even more rediculous ads in the last decade. "Soldiers in our streets; We can't make this up".

    Or what about the secret deals that Harper had with Klein to destroy medicare?

    Don't take them seriously.Most Canadians won't.

    By Anonymous Anonymous, at 4:07 p.m.  

  • And how did that "soldiers in our streets" ad work out for the Liberals?

    By Blogger calgarygrit, at 4:27 p.m.  

  • That ad did not work too well for the Libs but other stupid ads did work or at least didn't do any harm.

    I was refuting the original point that these ads were the most ridiculous in the last decade; Clearly they are not.

    By Anonymous Anonymous, at 4:35 p.m.  

  • So have the Liberals never taken anything out of context for their own purpose?

    Also, you might want to thank CTV which may have given the tory war room the idea because it was two CTV pundits who made the rather loose connection between Ignatieff's passionate speech to Howard Dean.

    I don't see Ignatieff as simply being passionate CJ there were spots when he came off looking like an angry fellow - almost manic.

    By Anonymous Anonymous, at 4:51 p.m.  

  • and there were spots when that last Anon (4:51) came off as a raging lunatic...

    see how that works?

    By Anonymous Anonymous, at 5:02 p.m.  

  • Dean has the yelp and the high pitched voice in his. I don't see how these are even remotely similar. I mean, the Liberals sent out video of this speech to their entire membership list, so obviously they think he comes across well in it.

    By Blogger calgarygrit, at 5:47 p.m.  

  • Anon 4:51 pm - I don't believe they've ever shown a clip of Harper taken completely out of context. If they run an add ominously asking "does Stephen Harper support banning abortions?" and then show Harper saying "yes" to some unrelated question, then I will appologize to you.

    By Blogger calgarygrit, at 5:48 p.m.  

  • Did that last Anon (4:51) come off as a raging lunatic? Let's ask Michael Ignatieff...

    Yes Anon (5:02) that works very well!

    By Blogger Tof KW, at 5:55 p.m.  

  • Anon 4:35 - I don't think CalgaryGrit said they were THE most ridiculous ads in the last decade. CalgaryGrit said that they are two of the most ridiculous ads in the last decade. The Soldiers in our streets could still be the most ridiculous while these two are two of the most ridiculous, so long as most ridiculous includes a wider arnge than just the top one.

    The reason that I think these ads are particularly ridiculous (and I am a conservative) is that the same "YES! YES! YES!" is usde as a response to two completely different questions. I have never seen the true context of Ignattieff's "YES! YES! YES!". However, one need not know the true context of that clip on order to know that the conservatives are taking the clip out of context in at least one of those ads. The "YES! YES! YES!" cannot be Ignattieff's answer to two different questions, its impossible. If you watch the two ads, the only thing it proves is that the Conservatives are sleazy.

    By Blogger James McKenzie, at 7:42 p.m.  

  • No one who watches those ads is going to think that Ignatieff actually said "Yes, yes, yes!" to jeopardizing the economy.

    By the same token, the Liberal fighter jet ad isn't dishonest for showing Harper sitting in a jet cockpit, because it's obvious it's a photoshop.

    By Anonymous The Invisible Hand, at 1:50 a.m.  

  • After the G20, soldiers in our streets seems to show foresight. Besides... that add never even aired.

    By Anonymous DR, at 2:23 p.m.  

  • The Tories stand by their work, by pulling them from the internets.

    By Anonymous Anonymous, at 2:42 p.m.  

  • He said "two of the most ridiculous".... and is right

    By Anonymous jacques Beau Verte, at 4:50 p.m.  

  • I can't imagine voters turfed out the Liberals because of an "out of context" attack ad.

    A non-partisan study exists. It talks about a loss of several groups including the Catholic, visible minority voters.

    I also remember the criticism of those Just visiting ads.

    Ignatieff is polling behind Duceppe! Think about the frame "in it for the wrong reasons"

    ad campaign Ignatieff is "in it for himself"

    By Blogger CanadianSense, at 4:18 p.m.  

  • This cannot really work, I feel so.

    By Anonymous www.la-rioja-3d.com, at 3:57 a.m.  

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