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OVER THE PAST few weeks you may have seen a number of Labour-sponsored videos on your Facebook feed.
The three 30-second videos are an unusual departure for an Irish political party in that they do not feature any politicians.
Instead we see ’ordinary people’ talking about how things are getting better for them.
There’s a young woman getting ready for work on what looks like the first day of a new job:
There’s a young family talking about plans they have to improve their home:
And there’s a coffee shop owner talking about how business has been picking up over the last 18 months:
The videos are the brainchild of Bloom Advertising, which has done its fair share of work for Labour in recent years.
The ad agency was behind that infamous ‘Every Little Hurts’ newspaper spot during the 2011 general election.
Many Labour TDs have since acknowledged the ad has proved hugely damaging in recent years as the party ended up implementing many of the measures it warned Fine Gael would do if allowed the govern alone.
The ‘Better for… ‘ videos are part of a number of campaigns Labour is planning in the run-up to the general election as it attempts to show voters how it has contributed to the delivery of the economic recovery.
“Voters aren’t connecting the recovery with what the government is doing and those that are are connecting it more with Fine Gael and not Labour,” said a senior party source.
The ads are an attempt to “humanise” the recovery and show how ordinary people are benefiting, the source said.
Though they are not actors, the participants are in almost all cases friends or acquaintances of the principals at the production company, Marmalade Films.
The participants were also paid for their involvement. Marmalade even advertised for one of the spots on its Facebook page:
Labour said it met these costs and that the exact amount paid to those involved was “a matter between ourselves and the individuals”.
Marmalade Films’ creative director Daniel Hegarty said it is “standard practice” to pay people for taking part in documentary work. He added:
We often use our own networks, ask friends of friends, and that’s what we did in this case.
Colin Harmon, owner of the 3FE café on Lower Grand Canal St in Dublin, told us he took part in the “Better for Business” ad to help out his friends at Marmalade Films.
They wanted someone to do an ad in a small business in Dublin, and were running up against a tight deadline, so they asked me.
Harmon, a former Irish barista champion, says he has voted for Labour in the past, and is a “big fan of some of their people,” but feels similarly about Fine Gael and Fianna Fáil.
For his time, Harmon says he was paid “a few hundred quid” by the production company.
Siobhan and Colin, the couple in the “Better for Families” video did not respond to TheJournal.ie‘s requests for a comment.
However, our research shows they too are long-standing acquaintances of the principles at Marmalade Films.
Gemma Crowe, who appears in the “Better for Jobs” ad, declined to talk to TheJournal.ie about her participation.
The ads have been targeted at particular demographics on Facebook over the last few weeks with the party primarily aiming them at families with children and younger, cosmopolitan voters.
The senior party source added: “That’s the reason why we didn’t want to have politicians in them because politicians telling people the recovery is great is actually going to have the opposite effect and turn them off.”
Labour declined to comment on how much in total it spent on the campaign, including production and distribution on Facebook.
- additional reporting from Dan MacGuill
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Am I missing something here or is this the most pointless piece of ‘would-be’ journalism I’ve ever read? Tsk!
It’s an article by Hugh so there has to be ulterior motive. Probably hoped for one of those Yes supporting families picture used in the NO referendum poster campaign kinda story, but didn’t get it but went with the story nonetheless, its all about clicks here.
Seriously , would you expect anything less from “blue hugh “
I’m confused.com, Who’s in government now implementing cuts and tax hikes then.
Well done Hugh , you’ve excelled yourself again, coff
I don’t see why he just doesn’t have “#VoteFG” at the end of every paragraph of his articles..
So.. they are fairly ordinary then. So far as anyone can be ‘ordinary’.
slave labour jobs
I was going to make a snarky comment along the lines of “The headline might as well have read “People do a job and get paid” But then I remembered how rare actually getting paid for work is becoming.
you gotta give credit for whoever came up with this dross drivel,, the labour party are paying him/her,, fools and their money easily parted,,keep this clap trap up somebody will make money as labour slip to 4% then 3% in polls,,,,,,,, labour score more own goals than Glasgow rangers
To be honest, you would have had a better article if you had of compared the ‘Every Little Hurts’ advertisement to the policies Labour eventually allowed Fine Gael to pass through. Now that I would have enjoyed reading.
With this article you’re basically pointing out the obvious.
F**k Labour! from a former Labour voter.
Of course they aren’t real people.
Labour has done nothing for the average working person.
All those nice little videos won’t save them come election time.
Did you read the article? They are the real people, they guy in the ad who for small business is actually running a small business. Also, not linked to labour but rather to the ad company.
The article should have addressed is have they actually been helped by govt policies or are they in fact the lucky ones who are just managing to survive. Poor article
You totally miss the point. Of course they’re real people; but they were paid to act a role,and do not necessarily support anything about Labour or its policies. Therefore this could be perceived as an attempt by Labour to deceive the electorate..
Politicians deceiving the electorate?! Somebody think of the children!
But usually the deception comes from their own mouths or those of their supporters, now they’re paying others to do it too
But usually the deception comes from their own mouths or those of their supporters, now they’re paying others to do it too
If you read the comments under their photo there was no comments when the Journal contacted them they were paid to do the job and that is where it stops not anything to do with Labour party.
Lots to think about from this piece. Although now I do fear that Barry Scott may not be the internationally recognised detergent and cleaning expert that he’s implied to be :(
just goes to show how out of touch the political system is with “ordinary people “.
They would have to pay people to vote for them!
Liebour are finished!
Video 1: Thank you slave masters, without your continuous support I would of never been able to get a job. Now that I am working I am (free) to give away most of wages in taxes and pay huge debts that aren’t mine. Everything is O.K, I am happy, thank you government.
Video 2: I am unable to care for my family without Labour. Your life is better with Labour.
Video 3: Got a loan from AIB, good idea, good product, started a business, fair play. Lost credibility after making video with political organisation.
You lost me at “would of”.
*****INTERNET GRAMMAR POLICE ALERT***** *****INTERNET GRAMMAR POLICE ALERT*****
Pouring more money down the drain, for a useless party.
Better forgotten.
The video I want to see put up on media would be the Labour party running for the hills after a GE .
Even paying people won’t save Labour. Lying, treacherous, sly pieces if Fine Gael….
How much did the Labour party pay consultants to come up with some foolishness which, at best, might save two or three seats for them?
In the years after a recession, in a developed country like ours, its natural that the economy is gonna improve as the worst is over. Fg and labour haven’t done anything to aid this, they’ve just raised taxes and gave us 5 years of prolonged austerity. So labour just trying to take credit for a natural economic progression is pathetic. Just like the stupid talktojoan idea, theres no substance to it.
I listened and believed labour and fg’s lies & spin in the lead up to the last election. I foolishly believed kenny’s contract to the Irish people, his “immoral and unjust” waffle. gilmores blatant lies , rabbits baloney and moanin joans utter rubbish. I have watched a once proud party being turned by the greed and lure of the champagne trough. Won’t be fooled again. Rot in hell labour.
Everytime u go on you tube that bloody colin & mother video is on driven crackers from it now… Would never vote labour
Another recession imminent, the Chinese market is collapsing, the U.S. Prominent market closed at -3% on Friday and the euro isn’t worth a shite. 2008 was nothing compared to what is ahead of us! And we have the likes of labour wasting tax payers money on propaganda SMH wake the hell up Ireland!
Couldn’t agree more John. There’s a serious collapse on the horizon. But don’t worry, trickle down economics should sort that for us. Nice to read an educated comment on here.
Great to see an internet hippy circle jerk
Great, as always, to see a new troll account too. T wat.
People don’t connect the recovery to government because it has nothing to do with them. FF tied them onto the path before they were dumped. It is also massively helped by the drop in value of the euro. This also has nothing to do with the government so basically we are right not to give them any credit, they don’t deserve it.
Hahaha. So they couldn’t even get real people for the videos. This stuff is just pathetic. Whoever is running or advising labour is simply clueless. We’ve had the disaster thats jobbridge, followed by the rediculous tokonistic talktojoan followed by this crap.
“However, our research shows they too are long-standing acquaintances of the principles at Marmalade Films.”
Nice to see that Facebook stalking is now considered “research” in Journal towers.
A good start. Now the Labour PR department should prepare the launch of a TV soap on the lives of everyday Labour voting folk, with lots of sly jokes inserted in the script about FG, FF, SF and the United Left allsorts.
‘ friends or acquaintances of the principals at the production company’, kinda sums up Irish politics and and how the public procurement budget is usually spent… pretty well done I think, Labour and Marmalade Films.
A family considers plans for improvements on their home
Takes cash in hand acting job to help out, admits it on the Internet. Now Joan is after them.
Nice one little Jim but isn’t Joan behind the payment. ha
Joanie having been fooled last time with Labour lies not this time. Fool me once shame on you fool me twice shame on me.
Labour in a jam, Marmalade Films to the rescue but jam packed with deception.
Labour were caught between a rock and a hard place. They were considered too left wing for this country for seventy odd years as Irish peopled vote on civil war politics and planning permission. The love of “cute hoor” politicians meant that when Labour had a soul middle Ireland would not vote for them, so they wrongly morphed into a centre right effort to appeal to the electorate. They will be annihilated in the next election but that should be seen as the chance for the party to start again and become Irelands centre left party again. Could be a blessing in disguise. Im a former member of the party who left after this performance in government. Not even sure if I will vote in the next election cause I have no idea who to vote for
Isn’t is instructive that the Junior Party with the least say in this Coalition are vilified from pillar to post for not acting like as if they were the Senior Party in the government. We the electorate did not give the Labour Party a mandate to enable them to have their policies implemented. The reality we the electorate gave FG the biggest mandate. So maybe the whiners might engage in a bit of realpolitik.
Judging by the perception of the new alternative Parties people will vote for the same old same old. Remember all Parties will tell the electorate what they think the electorate wants to hear, not what they really will do if they do not get an overall majority. No doubt if the electorate wants a FF/FG coalition the voting pattern will do enough to achieve that.
The attitudes of Labour members appear to have shifted to be perfectly in line with those of Fine Gael, they frequently spout insulting comments about the very class of people they rely on for votes, implement Fine Gael-esque policies headed by their own members, such as the heavily abused jobbridge for example, and take a belligerent stance against the very people they should be trying to appease for votes. As a former labour voter I can tell you the only way I would ever vote for them again is if they dropped the incompetent Joan Burton and replaced some of the other contentious faces with new blood, and even then they probably would not have enough time to rebuild trust with their voting base.
Labours traditional voters have actually been middle class, its a myth that their core vote in this country is working class. Hence Labour youth being traditionally strong in college politics but this not being reflected in the polls on election day
“Though they are not actors, the participants are in almost all cases friends or acquaintances of the principals at the production company, Marmalade Films.”
…..so……not ordinary people.
A family considers improvements on their home
The strangest thing about those “Every Little Hurts” was Labour has no need to lie to get into power, yet they still did and were exposed for it.
A big factor was the age profile of the Labour leadership at the last election. They were a party of old men. Rabbitte and Gilmore saw this as being their last chance at being in government. If Labour had stayed in opposition they would most likely be the second biggest party in the state now. I mean even FF, the architects of the shit storm have started to look better to certain parts of the electorate simply because they were in opposition. The ground swell in support for SF would most likely be Labours too if they had stayed out of government.
Why won’t the rest of my comment post?????
Copy your comment and then paste it if it doesn’t work…
FG/Labour Traitors to their Country Men and Women -OUT OUT OUT
But to be in an advert you have to belong to an actors union… So they have to be actors and actors never say anything without a script?
Bless sure tis only public money the are using on this drivel
I think Harmon needs a slap from a wake up call. One probably wouldn’t go astray for Hugh either.
Take 27 year old Gemma Crowe for example. This short video shows her returning to work in Ireland having previously emigrated to New Zealand. http://www.labour.ie/blog/2015/08/19/better-for-jobs/
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