Stephen Harper: The Last Advertiser

The world of advertising has been at a crossroads for some time. The advent of digital more than a decade ago has taken most ‘traditional’ advertisers by surprise and left them wondering how they can brainwash the masses.

Print producers failed to adapt because they didn’t see the massive shift to online classifieds and other ‘wanted’ ads, robbing them of a vital cash flow to sustain their so-called ‘news’.

Radio is intensely laden with garbage, people shouting at you at intervals between ‘oldies’ that loads of people just can’t seem to walk away from.

TV – the ultimate in mass marketing – is failing, especially in Canada because the masses aren’t following ‘the rules’ any more.  They’re going legit by subscribing to services like Netflix, quasi-legit by bypassing IP address blocking to get cool services like Hulu or simply breaking the rules completely by seeking out content and downloading it on their terms.

There are other basic formats, but you get the idea.

The mass marketers are suffering and near complete cardiac arrest.

In the short-term, they’ll make us pay for it.  We’ll mumble on about paywalls, paid services, custom channel packages and so on, but this will be short-lived.

The mainstream media companies will choke on their own fumes while Canadians find alternatives.  Refreshing, honest, legitimate alternatives.

What happens in this kind of situation is that mainstream media – if it fails – will no longer be there to be the voice of its owners, the country’s established Conservative minority.

So what do we do?

Stephen Harper’s Government(TM) spends hundreds of millions of dollars of taxpayer money keeping the life-support system going with questionable, dubiously beneficial and possibly illegal propaghanda ads promoting its miserably failed ‘Economic Action Plan’.

Since taking power, it’s estimated that the Conservatives have spent anywhere from $500 million to a full BILLION on advertising their action plan.

NOT for the purpose of helping Canadians identify with what they’re trying to do, but instead to consistently subsidize the voice of Conservatives.

This must end.

Canadians have a right to know exactly how much has been spent (wasted) by the Conservatives on advertising and – more importantly – who the beneficiaries have been over the last 7 years.

Failure to exhibit this kind of transparency will defeat the Conservative promise to be more accountable and prove once again that they are liars and deceivers.

PS If you’re a Liberal or NDPer, question the tactics of using mass advertising when the money you spend simply goes against you.