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June 14, 2004 - Strategy Magazine
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Federal Election Wars
Marketing political parties: Who's doing the best job?

by Ian Edwards
page 2

O Canada, there is a whole lot of American-style mudslinging during the 2004 Canadian federal election. And whether you "Choose Your Canada" or "Demand Better" might depend on how you respond to advertising and media spin that is less about platform and more about fear and negativity, according to analysts.

The first volley actually came from the Liberals before the writ was dropped May 23, with stephenharpersaid.ca, a Web-based promotion holding the Conservative leader's feet to the flames of his own out-of-context words, as in: "Canada appears content to become a second-tier socialistic country."

Not to be outdone, the Tories launched teammartinsaid.ca within hours of their Grit foes, replete with a sour rebuttal that focused on the "hypocrisy" of the Liberal insiders.

Tit-for-tat campaigning, of course, is nothing new for elections but low-road tactics have the potential to backfire with voters, says Lindsay Meredith, a professor of marketing strategy in the school of business at Simon Fraser University in Vancouver.

"Never wrestle with pigs," he says. "You both get dirty and the pig likes it. The back room boys need to go back to marketing 101."

Negative campaigning - like the Kim Campbell Conservative government's infamous poke at former Prime Minister Jean Chretien's trademark facial droop - contributes to a fatigued voter syndrome, now decades old, in which voters elect governments based on what hurts least, not what works best, says Meredith. Negative campaigning, he adds, is not a strategy that works to sell other products or we would see it used to promote cars, cheese, computers and other commodities.

For its part, the Liberal Party poo-poos criticism that it is partaking in negative and fear-based campaigning. Steven MacKinnon, director of communications for the Liberal Party, says the anti-Harper Web site has not been a priority during the official campaign. "We reject that premise," he says. "The [Web site was] informational. We wonder why [the Tories] are not willing to stand by their leader's own words."

Like the other parties, the Liberals are not willing to say how much they spent on election advertising. That is disclosed after the election. The overall Liberal campaign cost - including all the elements of electioneering - is about $17 million, says MacKinnon.

The Liberals' "Choose Your Canada" campaign, created by a consortium of agencies known as "Red Leaf," has rolled out in television spots, including a B.C.-specific spot highlighting former NPD heavyweights who made the Liberal switch, and a slew of bilingual ads for Quebec, each featuring a casual Prime Minister Paul Martin speaking into the camera. Liberal radio spots are regional and print advertisements in major newspapers are dedicated to policy announcements. The Liberals are doing little in the way of Internet promotion, outside of the stephenharpersaid.ca site and the party Web site.

Also like all the parties, the Liberals are convinced their messages are resonating with Canadians - even as the media is filled with headlines speculating that Liberal momentum is slowing and a Tory government is a distinct possibility.

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