12 November 1999

Vancouver Votes: The Ad’s - THE COMMENTARY

By Joseph Planta

- A Joseph Planta Commentary - The ad’s have been cropping up throughout this town. The billboards are a rotating with images of ‘Responsible Government’ (NPA) and the leaflets are a passing with a choice for us whether we wants more transit and roads (COPE). This past edition of The Courier (November 7) is chock full of ad’s from members of the NPA, COPE/Green and a mayoralty candidate named Dr. Evil. Why the heck is council candidate Tim Louis’ mug larger than mayoralty candidate David Cadman?

The NPA scores on subtlety in the placement of the ad’s. COPE/Green go for the flashy and sort of tacky advertisements. But, with the Louis thing, I have it on good authority that the guy is a well-known popular person, and the party is just exploiting that. Good move, but will it actually get him elected? Let’s hope so.

The websites are also quite interesting. The NPA site < www.npa.bc.ca > is subtle, again, as well as tastefully done. It doesn’t have frames or fancy moving ad bars that scroll along the top. The COPE site < www.cope.bc.ca > is tacky, again. It’s got a useless and ill-placed frame, as well as the nauseating green colours of the party. The Green party website is at < www.greenparty.bc.ca >, I haven’t had a look, so if you do tell us about it.

The ad’s won’t make any major indentation into the conviction of the Vancouverite voter. The election is the NPA’s to win, but I doubt they will. The ad’s are, on both sides, simply to rate the COPE/Green’s ability to get out there. COPE/Green has the most unfortunate of predicaments. Most of those running on the NPA side are incumbents, thus somewhat well-known. COPE/Green need these ad’s to register in the typical voter’s mind. If they don’t, they’re practically toast.

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