The SMH is tagging their NSW Election coverage as a “Tough Choice.” I prefer Indifference 2007 but the message is clear. How can you get excited about a contest when Iemma’s campaign slogan is “More to do but heading in the right direction.” It sounds like the type of comment found on a school report card. Maybe we’ll start to see other slogans such as “Frank Sartor – Does not play well with others.”
Iemma’s slogan was the best of a bad lot. The truthful but unlikely “At Least I’m Not Debnam” was never going to get a run. There were copyright issues between the government and Kylie over “Better The Devil You Know.” “Who else you going to vote for?” did not go down well with the focus groups likewise “Bob Carr, who the bloody hell was he?”
Still, marginally better than the Liberal’s idea of “Lebs under your beds!”
I wonder if the failure of Liberal Party candidates is as costly for them in NSW as it is in Queensland. See middle of page 312 for the financial hazards of being a failed Liberal Party candidate. Maybe there will be plenty of Libs reaching deep into their pockets after the Federal election too.
‘ Don’t change horseheads midstream?’
How about “there is no “I” in “Yemma”?
steve, you have made the same comment three times. I’ve deleted two as there is no need for the repetition (unless you are having issues with posting comments).
The more cynical among you may ask why should anybody vote for this mob when they can’t even get to grips with a simple concept like the comma. It should read:
“More to do COMMA (,) [pat pend] but heading in the right direction.”
Leaving aside the minor quibbles about grammar, the slogan indicates the ALP has done a sterling job of market research and thoroughly stitched up up the vital ‘retro vote’.
By which I mean sad, inner city design types fascinated with 1950s advertising who regularly head off to the Domain have a good natured stoush with an elderly bloke called Bluey about 1930s Premier Jack Laing and the evils of the British debt.
So grammar notwithstanding, the ALP’s onto a definite winner.
Big ups to the agency that trousered all that money for 10 seconds thought. It’s ‘Totally Morris’ http://www.classicmotor.co.uk/minor2.jpg
The last time I saw the proper version of that slogan was back in 1987, on a flyer – “Five reasons for not changing horses midstream” – for an ALP candidate in an otherwise safe Liberal seat. (OK, I admit, my mother was the candidate in question, and she had bugger-all chance of unseating their Deputy, but nevermind…) Of course, the main slogan that year, “Let’s See It Through”, would have worked wonders this time around. (A variation on that could be “Debnam’s job cuts: Let’s see through it.”)
As for a really silly one (playing on my usual obsession on the Liberal-AoG ‘complex’), how about “Our capital is Sydney – not Baulkham Hills”?
Yes, I think the alternate slogan is “The Honourable Member for Vaucluse”.
Nuff said.
Oh shit. We’re in a stream? On a horse? I’m totally panicking and don’t know who to vote for.
“Totally Morris, Help Me!”
As a slogan, and rescuing all and sundry from the flood, I think it works pretty well.
And they must excise that terrible jingle at the end of the long version of the television ad – post haste. It’s awful.
The ad up until that point is actually not that bad for a political advertisement.
Ratty as it is as a slogan it seemed to work for the rodent in 2001.
Thanks for snipping the repeat posts Shaun. They showed no indication of going through.
The slogan is probably a parody on how the NSW Libs who are restricted in public appeal by the extreme right of the party can’t move any further in the right direction without losing even more public support and creating an electoral tsunami for themselves.
State Labor governments cast a broad net in the first half of the electoral cycle and that is how things like the Bradford scheme get put on the agenda.
Liberal oppositions start off veering right, turn right and ease right again before waking up with an election on to find they have no policy, no friends and noone prepared to vote for them compounded by no money in their kitty.
I don’t know how effective they are as an opposition in the actual parliament but their Queensland cousins are just a divided rabble with no tactics, no strategy and no idea. Perhaps your next epistle from the bearpit could inform us of what the performance of both sides has been over this term.
Nah, nah, Christine, it is not necessarily a grammatical error. The coordinate clause is short and the subject is the same, hence can get away with no comma. It could also beg the meaning: “More to do, but heading in the right direction (would be a good idea).”
Frankly, it’s a loser slogan. Comes from the genre of:
Anyhow, have a Winfield;
Had a punt on a fourth at Rosehill, better luck next time;
The leg’s gone gangrenous and will have to come off, but I’m getting a discount on the prosthesis.
BTW: It’s Jack Lang. Laing (RD) was a Scottish psychiatrist who hated other psychiatrists and was never a premier of NSW nor a speaker in the Domain.
I think Morris should forget about campaigning as it is not doing him any favours. He should just say: “I am too busy running the state” etc. Let Debnam put himself about. No harm in that for the ALP.
PS No votes in water in the city. Nobody gives a root. Yet. But Debnam has turned up in Manly talking water today.
Well spotted with the slogans SHC, and touche for picking me up on the error about Jack Lang.
When’s Debbo going to stop with the bottled water salesman schtick and get on with campaigning? According to his blog http://www.peterdebnam.com.au/ he’s been tooling around Cronulla since February 3.
I want to see some blood dammit.
I was privileged to take a peek at Morris’s campaign diary…
Out of the steam strode Eamonn, shimmering and insubstantial. “Morris,” he called. “The time has come to test him.”
“He is only a one-dimensional cabin boy,” I said.
“He is stronger than you think,” Eamonn pronounced, and vanished.
So…chalk one up for Eamonn. The boy is strong. Stronger than I could have imagined. Through his clumsy, novice staggers the Force blew enormous rage, a hot wind of raw power I struggled to hold my own against. I had toyed with him at first, but I soon found myself working hard. He knew none of the classic moves: his foil play was dictated directly from his heart, clubbing at me with an instinctive passion that dodged my every stratagem.
And, of course, my left leg was acting up like crazy.
I used what ounce of my will I could spare to exert control over the misfiring circuits, wrestling my wayward limb to do my bidding as I fended off the broad, single-minded thrusts of the bitchfire youth. He knocked me down and I felt his confidence swell. I realized: he loathes me!
don’t underestimate the underdog (ie. apparent loser) factor, sir henry.
winfield lept from nought to the most smoked brand in the country, in just a couple of months with hoges, and the “anyhow” slogan, (ok – the walking in front of the SSO playing tchaikovsky’s 5th at the newly opened opera house didn’t hurt sales either)
but i think the modest morris thang, is a big winner in the burbs. if you go to the personal sites on the net (i was there for research purposes only) the overwhelmingly vast majority both female and males especially in the 35-55y.o categories – describe themselves as “just ordinary” or “just an average guy/girl”, “a normal guy” or just an “everyday sort of guy/girl”. (most also state GSOH, while providing not a shred of evidence.)
it’s truly depressing. but there ya go.
morris – just an ordinary guy looking for ordinary voters for committed medium-term relationship. likes kids, outdoor activities and sunsets. intellgent (**the 1000 ways to spell intellagent/inteligent – you can also find in the personals) and GSOH. swingers welcome.
Ahem, Jo, I like Morris. I certainly do not think Morris will lose. I am critical of the campaign slogan, which targets losers. Winfield very successfully built a brand targeted a market segment – the dispossed: unemployed teen boys, in the main, with few prospects. It was a very sophisticated campaing and slogan for that market quadrant.
Anyhow (everything I have touched has turned to shit) (Might as well) Have a Winfield (it’s the only bit of fun left). What is in brackets is understood.
I know who is putting Morris’s campaign together. I even worked in his media monitoring unit earlier this year. (I couldn’t take it after 3 months – imagine listening to Jones, Lawsie, and Ray Hadley every day. It was like standing under a shit shower).
My point is… Morris shouldn’t have to appeal to the marginals with a loser-sounding campaign. It is not a well thought-out strategy. The target audience is different to Winfield’s (the latter will always vote Labor ANYHOW).
So, let’s rewrite the brief: what is Morris’s USP?
Imitation, the most sincere form of flattery.
Laura Tingle said it best in today’s AFR: “We’re not very good, but at least we’re trying”.
“(I couldn’t take it after 3 months – imagine listening to Jones, Lawsie, and Ray Hadley every day. It was like standing under a shit shower)”.
Sir Henry,
Come now my good fellow, could you possibly ease up on the scatological shower talk.
Or are you deliberately trying to gee up Gloria? He’s already heavily identifying with Matty Damon playing the mud wrestling scene from The Good Shepherd. Furthur encouragement is hardly necessary.
Morris should just go home and put his feet up. It’s all over for Debsy. He’ll resign saying he wants to spend more time with his family, etc, etc. and Fatty O’Barrell will be installed as Opposition Leader. If this doesn’t happen I’ll drop my dacks in Martin Place.
Forget all the other bullshit punditry. Now let’s get on with more important topics, such as choosing a sidearm to replace the Browning. It’s a single-action, 1935 design. A Glock anyone?
Oh come Sir Henry, nothing wrong with the classic stylings of a Webley Mark VI .455 service revolver. We’ve become far too soft and need to reinforce standards in our society. Just give those bodgies a quick clip across the ear.
Goodness me, you are an old-fashioned girl CK.
Actually the Webley .455 wasn’t meant for bodgies but for crazed natives who wouldn’t lie down after a few lesser slugs. The battle of Isandlwana got very ugly when the the Zulu got very close even with a bit of lead aboard and threw a short spear called the iklwa. Once in, the implement would be pulled out disembowelling one of Her Maj’s loyal officers (that was the idea of the design). Hence the need for a pocket cannon like the Webley.
This must have been such a salutary experience for the corporate memory of HM Armed Forces that it didn’t want to let go of the security blanket of this ridiculously overpowered revolver until the mid 1940s when they graciously accepted the US offer of Smith & Wesson and Colt .38s. Note: they still wouldn’t trust an auto pistol, say, like the Browning, which had already proved itself as a worthy instrument of order and justice by despatching Archduke Ferdinand and nearly so, Vladimir Ilich Lenin (by another old fashioned lass, Fanny Kaplan).
The Webley is heavy, has an awful kick, rearing upwards, because it is oddly balanced. But you couldn’t tell the Brit brass anything. Indeed, they stuck with the .303 until 1956. (I think it was Suez that made them change their mind.)
Are you thinking perhaps of the Webley in service of our responsibility to our less fortunate neighbours in the South Pacific, hopped up on Honiara palmnut juice?
How flattering Sir Henry.
You’re right though, we do need to upgrade. Bugger the sidearms. Handled properly, a few of these would scare the crap out of anyone: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4bBjkjJQQNQ
Bugger the sidearms? And what would the squaddies skylark with then, pray?