Thursday, January 12, 2006

Here We Are Now, Entertain Us!

I’ll admit it, I like Attack Ads.



It’s true. Underneath my cool and polite Canadian exterior beats a heart that revels in the excitement of aggressive competition, especially when it comes to politics.

I appreciate the brilliance and creative thought that goes into the ads as rival factions attempt to illustrate, in the boldest of possible terms, the difference between competing values and messages.

Attack ads create interest, demand attention, generate discussion and fuel debate. They turn the often elusive game of politics into a sport that everyone can play.

This campaign has been so boring I’ve mused out loud about actually eating my ballot just to stimulate some excitement in the people around me. The threat of this election has been hanging over our heads for far too long and finally, after months of scandals, sponsorship allegations, judicial inquiries and police investigations, we find ourselves tired of the same old same old. Attack Ads encourage people to engage and we all can attest to the need for that! People vote when they are angry or otherwise motivated so lets raise the stakes. Hell, let the bloodbath begin.

Bring on the Attack Ads.

7 comments:

michele said...
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
michele said...

oops. But don't each your ballot. I don't know what would happen, but it doesn't sound good:
http://www.elections.ca/content.asp?section=faq&document=faqvoting&lang=e&textonly=false#voting20

Allie Wojtaszek said...

I wasn't actually going to eat my ballot (I mostly think people who eat their ballots are morons) I was just trying to solicit some amount of interest or emotion (other than apathy) towards the election...

Anonymous said...

Why eat your ballot when you can eat your fellow voters? Alive. That would spark up even more excitement.

Allie Wojtaszek said...

hahahaha, you're right of course.

Thing is I am on a cholesterol free diet and people are full of cholesterol.

Now I have to be very clear hear: I don't eat ballots OR people and I am not advocating anyone to do so. They are both against the law and at least one is a heinous crime. I'll let you all decide which one that might be :-)

Jon said...

That attack ad about Martin's shipping company running under non-Canadian flags is the biggest load of crap I have ever heard. If anything, him doing this proves he knows how to manage money and isn't a complete fiscal retard.

Who doesn't do this? I can name at least three companies off the top of my head that fly under Panama.

I would rather have someone who flies foriegn flags than someone who uses that as an attack.

Allie Wojtaszek said...

I agree - it is true that all of us would do the same thing in that position. I don't think it is unpatriotic.

But until an attack ad brought it up no one really thought too much about it. Now people have formed their opinions and (mostly, from my experience) decided along the same lines that you have on the issue.

Of course, some people have made the argument that attack ads are only used when a campaign is panicking or things are getting desperate, but I am not sure that I agree with that as a blanket statement.