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A LEAKED LABOUR advert, warning of the perils of a Fianna Fáil-Sinn Féin/left-wing coalition, has certainly got people talking.
With the election looming you can expect to see a lot more political party advertising in the weeks ahead. Some, like this ad, will inevitably be negative and attract criticism. That’s a fact of modern day politics, but it doesn’t mean it’s not effective as a form of getting the message across.
What’s unusual about this particular ad is that it’s a draft that found its way into the paper without a single euro being spent.
It features a mock-up of Gerry Adams and Micheál Martin tying the knot as Richard Boyd-Barrett, Paul Murphy, Mick Wallace and Clare Daly look on.
The slogan: “This is one marriage we should vote NO to this year” ties in one of Labour’s signature achievements in government, the same-sex marriage referendum, with a warning about the consequences of not voting the current coalition back into office.
Jonathan Sugarman / TwitterProof of just how low &desperate t @labour party of #Ireland is
— Jonathan Sugarman (@WhistleIRL) January 3, 2016
As a #gay man I am proud that IRL voted YES #MarRef pic.twitter.com/F9ijGBKt6m
This, for all intents and purposes, looked like a strategic leak to the Sunday Independent. It has had the effect of an awful lot of people seeing a draft that is now unlikely to be placed anywhere by the party because it’s already out there.
Labour has not addressed how or why the ad leaked, but wasn’t exactly expressing any upset at it having happened. Yesterday, a spokesperson merely noted that it was one of a number of drafts considered.
Job done and money saved. Cynical, yes, but then politics is, unfortunately, a very cynical game.
The party’s youth wing, Labour Youth, is not so pleased and its chairperson was “shocked” last night, calling for a “serious investigation” to identify those who leaked it.
TheJournal Politics / TwitterLabour Youth has condemned THAT ad and called for an investigation into how it leaked pic.twitter.com/9UpJ3zNo7d
— TheJournal Politics (@TJ_Politics) January 3, 2016
We’ve asked Labour if they will instigate such a probe and are awaiting comment. But don’t hold your breath.
The ad is the brainchild of the Tánaiste Joan Burton’s chief of staff Ed Brophy. He made headlines last week after it emerged he earns €144,550 – almost €52,000 above the pay cap for special advisers introduced by the government.
The mock-up was produced by Bloom Advertising, a company Labour does a lot of work with. It was the agency behind the infamous ‘Every Little Hurts’ ad which warned of the perils of electing a Fine Gael-only government.
That ad has proved hugely damaging in recent years as Labour ended up implementing many of the measures it warned Fine Gael would do if allowed to govern alone.
This latest creation is definitely in the realm of negative campaigning. That doesn’t sit well with everyone. On Cork’s 96fm earlier, junior minister Kathleen Lynch said she found the ad offensive and hoped her party would not embrace such negativity.
But the reality is that we can expect more negative campaigning in the coming weeks as the election approaches, whether from Labour or other parties. It’s the nature of modern day politics and, some argue, it works when it comes to convincing voters.
Critics say this ad makes a mockery of one of Labour’s major achievements. But it’s worth noting that marriage analogies are often used in political debate when talking about coalition governments.
Labour TD John Lyons, who was heavily involved in that campaign, insisted this morning that the party would never seek to make a mockery of the referendum victory.
The ad is merely drawing attention to the “chaos” that will be caused by this government not being re-elected, he said.
That advert’s central message will resonate with some voters who won’t be at all concerned by the controversy over whether or not it is appropriate. Some might even find it funny or fanciful given Mick Wallace would surely never wear a suit.
As columnist Jason O’Mahony noted on Twitter, the ad has annoyed people who were never going to vote for the party anyway.
Whatever you think of it, what’s not in any doubt is that it’s eye-catching – some might say shocking – and has provoked an awful lot of debate over the past 24 hours.
In many ways, that’s indicative of it being a success.
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If the ad showed Joan and Enda getting married would there be any outrage? Crazy stuff altogether. Can I say that as a gay man I wasn’t in any way offended by the ad I just thought it showed how shallow Labour really are. They’re more power hungry than Fianna Fail I think
I don’t think anyone was offended, the media keeps mentioning that people found it offensive. It was distasteful and a realisation of the schoolyard type crap campaigning that we will have to face in the run up to the GE. At least we know now what side the indo is on.
Makes more of a mockery of labour than anyone.
Agreed, Phil. The Irish media are so far behind public opinion in this country it is beyond a joke. They EXPECTED that people would be offended. When they weren’t they couldn’t back down but simply continued to ALLEGE that people were offended. Anyone I know simply thought the ad was pathetic, therefore I doubt if it will form part of Labour’s gallant campaign.
Rashers, expect more of this media peddling nonsense in the coming weeks. Also Renua have already flip flopped and are preparing to fill the breach left by Labour, it’s about to get nauseous.
The perpetually offended will always be offended.
Give Liveline a buzz.
Fact is, there wouldn’t have been a marriage equality referendum if it wasn’t for Labour.
If you’re gay and offended by this ,you’re nearly as stupid as the media giving Labour all this nice free publicity .
as ever the media think they are setting the agenda, in reality they haven’t a clue about reporting reality
Irish water please…
moriarty findings please…
hospital trolly debacle please
head of state telling blatant lies please..
homeless/eviction crisis please..
It worked for the same reason Donald Trump is popular. Because the world is full of morons.
Diarmuid – So you have just won –
‘THE PERPETUALLY OFFENDED AWARD 2015′
in recognition of getting the most Red Thumbs for the whole year , on The Journal.ie.
You won by a Distance – Happy New Year !
Try harder labour,, all this ad was meant to do,,,and let’s face it,, did, was to get your people on all types of media,, playing down the FUSS,, while constantly repeating the line of the “chaos” that is surely to follow if we the stupid public, would have the audacity to vote in any other parties,, your fooling no one,, try harder labour……..
Just pathetic and desperate from a party close to extinction…
It just proves that Labour are scraping the barrel.
Or maybe jusy looking for extra votes in Roscommon.
I’d didn’t work. It made me hate Labour even more
Only thing shocking is the four spelling mistakes in this article. Back 2 Skool Hugh!
The ad isn’t really offensive. It is unbelievably stupid, though, because it leaves Labour open to accusations of schoolyard immaturity and also negative campaigning. Along with that, it negates the only real achievement Labour had in government (i.e. promoting the same sex marriage referendum) and reducing the ceremony to some kind of theatrical sideshow, thereby poking fun at gay marriage itself. Quite baffling, really.
How was the referendum an achievement of theirs? The public voted. I, for one, didn’t vote Yes because Joan wanted me to. I voted Yes despite that.
If you read my comment and come down off your high horse, you will see that I said their only real achievement while in government was ‘promoting’ the campaign.
Sorry, I’m genuinely not trying to be argumentative for the sake of it…. but i don’t consider it an achievement of any sort to jump on to a bandwagon. There shouldn’t have been a need for a referendum. It was nice that we had one so the Irish people could officially say “Tá” … but running a few ads and posters to back the winning side was not an achievement and I wish people would stop saying it was.
The referendum would never have been proposed if it weren’t for labour being in power. No way fine Gael would have gone near it. Sorry Leo and Jerry thank Joan and Eamon.
Agreed, Joe GOP!
Eamon’s baby it was… much as I hate to say it
“Lads…. lads…. i have an idea. I was thinkin’, right? I was in the Dáil Bar there the other day (havin’ a few on me lunch break, ye know yerself) and what did I see only a coupla fellas holdin’ hands. Right there like. Not a bother on them! Nor anyone else!! Jaysis it was like people didn’t seem to mind at all. Two fellas like! So anyways I was in the jacks then later and d’ye know when ye have one of them eulogies in the jacks. Not eulogies, what’s this is the word… epiphanies. I says to meself… sher jaysis couldn’t we just ask the public if they wanna let lads like themselves get involved in the whole human rights thing. Ya know, like, to be treated the same as other people. If we were to just ask John and Mary Murphy what they think of it, they’ll hardly cut our heads off just for aKSin’ even if they’re opposed… and sher jaysis if they’re grand with it, sher we’d be what-ye-call-thems… heroes!”
Looks like Labour are very scared of the opposition with ads like this.
Maybe the opposition should have ignored the whole thing rather than giving out about it and giving Labour loads of free publicity.
They didn’t – the media did.
Would be time to leave Ireland if our next Government looked like that!
It’s been time to leave for a while now
Sure stick around Paul and get screwed even more by the current lot..
Don’t let the door hit you on the way out Joe…
I still care about people here, Diarmo. I’m not gonna leave them alone with you and your fellow right-to-the-death psychos
Seriously Joe, send us a postcard…
If I send it to FG HQ, will it get as far as your desk or should I put it in a brown envelope first?
Nah, not a FGer. Where you thinking of going? I hear your “movement” has connections in lovely places like Libya, Colombia and North Korea… maybe you could be hooked up?
Please take me with you – I’m old, but I don’t eat much. :-)
Ok… let’s just drop the smack-talk for a second… I was born here 30+ years ago. Born in the country, raised in a suburb and still living in the same place to stay close to ageing parents with health problems. I’ve worked since school age; only being unemployed for 6 months before I got my current job just under 3 years ago. What is it about my “movement” that you find so ripe for ridicule? Is it just the desire for a bit more fairness? Is that a ludicrous notion? Should I have my shackles tightened and food rations halved for such insolence? Seriously, Diarmuid, all I ever see you do here is attack Sinn Féin with claims that they’re IRA. Change the feckin’ record. Do you have any opinions on how we can honestly, genuinely and fairly improve things in this country for the better of all in it and all those yet to be born? Do you care about that at all, no?
If you think so lowly of Ireland you should just leave.
Joe… would you leave your elderly parents in a filthy crooked nursing home, where their money was being stolen and squandered by managers who threaten to cut their water and heating off if they complain? Probably not. I wouldn’t leave mine in Ireland.
So take them with you, load into a rubber boat and float to England screaming asylum the Irish fascists have forced you out.
Listen to yourself, man. You’re calling for a family of your own compatriots to be cast off on a rubber boat. I’m just dismayed at this government over what they’ve been doing for the past 5 years. Have you not been watching? In the past year, even, their public displays alone have been questionable to say the very least in the nicest possible way. What the hell is wrong with you? How can you be that blindly loyal to any entity??
@Joe Phillips, just send it to Hugh.
Demonstrates it was never about equality for them, just political point scoring. Looking forward to Labour joining the Greens and PD’s
Best of luck to the happy couple for the future.
Shocking and Provocative? Well, after talktojaon, ashbourne annie, those condescending videos, joans continuous cheap digs at the opposition, her shambolic behaviour in leaders questions, (being caught falling out of the boat in 2 inches of water definitely didn’t help), and everything else, no, its just stupid. It shows their true attitude towards the marriage referendum, it just shows they’re willing to support anything to get votes. And it certainly does nothing to change my mind about who i’m gonna vote for, which is not labour, so whats the point of the poster? To me, its just a political party being silly, which is nothing new from labour.
Of course it hasn’t worked. All it has done is shown up the desperation of Labour and the depths they are prepared to plunge to in order to get publicity. It also illustrates that they are prepared to use any cause or any person if it means coverage in the press.
Young Labour ‘shiocked’? Where was their shock at the amount of homelessness in this country with over 1500 children homeless at Christmas?
FOURTH round of click baiting on the same shabby issue, Journal? Tut tut.
PS In what way do you imagine this ad has worked, Journal?
Hugh “wrote” this. It’s not a news article. It’s just good old government propaganda
They probably did it just to get the media to stop posting pictures of Joan floundering in six inches of Irish Water.
I wouldn’t consider that advert as having worked. It was homophobic and in bad taste, if anything it damaged their credibility; in my eyes anyway
Ah.. I was wondering how it was decided that this had worked then I saw who had written the “article”… So tell us Hugh, yesterday Labour were telling us all that this was a draft and never meant to be published.. would you be suggesting that Labour lied and deliberately “leaked” the ad?
Labour are finished, run out of fresh ideas, lost the plot, do not represent people, only themselves and have the most obnoxious leader in iPhone Joan, they are dead in the water and that can only be better for the country.
I can imagine Labour HQ last week:
Mick: “Paddy, you know that marriage referendum thing whose coattails we’re riding in the hopes of picking up some floating voters?”
Paddy: “Yep, what about it”
Mick: “Should we use it as a theme for an attack ad that looks like schoolboys using photoshop for the first time came up with, and alienate those voters in the process?”
Paddy: “Yep, sounds like a great idea. Like putting joan in a boat later on for a photo op. You’re on a roll this week Mick.”
How long does it take instructions to reach your Dublin offices from West Belfast?
Dairmuid great to see you towing the party line as laid down by Brutish Tories last July. Keep up the good work for Enid and Cameron.
http://www.irishtimes.com/news/politics/fine-gael-tds-told-to-highlight-sinn-f%C3%A9in-s-whiff-of-sulphur-1.2349121
Liebour soon to be Irrelevant
If Labour can’t mastermind a decent photoshop, I certainly won’t be trusting them to run the country. Truly shocking!
Completely unbelievable as no democrat would touch SF/IRA support of thugs, fuel laundering etc. Let alone Mick Wallace in a suit !
You don’t seem to understand how to use ‘let alone’
VOTE SF, the dup are working with them.
Statement of Gardi commissioner: the Gardi hold no information or intelligence to support the assertion that PIRA are involved in fuel laundering, as is stipulated by IMC.
So are you saying that ‘democrats’ dont believe the Garda Commissioner?
Vote Labour / F.G. and get newer taxes and more of the same, Vote.
Fuel laundering could easily be stopped by replacing a physical damaging exercise with a paper based financial one. Very easily. I woukd suspect former IRA are involved in this racket but this has been with the blessings of the irish and British governments as part of sell of gfa. Just my view.
It’s just stupid. Pro-FG/Lab voters will think it’s funny, the easily outraged will be looking for way to find it insulting, everyone else just thinks it’s stupid.
Seriously ,a mocked up photo ,that takes the piss out of SSM ,dodgy but not that interesting ,why has no one mocked up a FG type kerb crawling a labour type working their street corner after all these arrangements are more quid pro quo than happy ever after ,plus it’s funnier ,labour needs to spend more on the spin doctors .
I would not or have never voted for Labour or Fine Geal but Its a brilliant add. I would say it was “leaked” on purpose but it has worked people are talking about it and then talking about the possibility of FF and SF in government. I expect alot of SF past to come to.light in the next few weeks.
What the f*ck is a “Pilib O Muiregan”?? I wish these Orangemen would leave us alone. We have plenty of home grown trolls, thank you.
Rashers are you some sort of self appointed thread policeman ?
“What the f*ck is a “Pilib O Muiregan”??”
Well we know what a Rashers Tierney is, another of the sf stooges here that snipe, spin, and attack constantly.
Says Joe the fanatic.
Says Phil, the 24/7 sf stooge, jump in quick to defend your comrade stooge.
That’s Mr Phil to you.
Jaysis lads. Put the phones away when you’re in school.
Mr Phil, so sorry, one of the many 24/7 sf stooges, that snipe and bully, like your troll friend above Rasher, that you have to intervene for.
I am going to enjoy bringing as much of the vast quantity of hypocrisy about SF as I can out here.
The more you try and discredit my voice, the harder I will work, Mr Phil.
Whatever you’re having yourself, Joe.
Calm down Joe.
Really rashers ? Ok, I’ll have honesty. What right have you to attack that man, label him an orangeman and a troll ? He made a straight forward comment, your in sneering and bullying. What gives you the right ? Before you try and deflect it back to me, I believe I’m standing up to a bully
Joe. the ex Sinn Fein member with a grudge probably because he wasn’t put on the election ticket.
Another stooge weighs in
And I was never a sf member, I said I canvased for sf, but that was because I knew the man. I was never a member of any political party. Not that it is relevant, I notice you don’t question rashers and his bullying.
Joe, you are the stalker. I am replying to you as I have had experience of your hounding. Yesterday for example, I post a comment and you jump in and attack straight away and don’t give up, just keep it going and going. You won’t accept when somebody does not agree with you.
Who’s stalking who, you’re in behind every comment I make, never dealing with the issue, but that’s sf all over.
You have an unhealthy obsession with Sinn Fein.
Tom you’re like a reformed alcoholic at this stage.
Another stooge, amazing how the queue up. Sf supporters continually talk about oppression, dirty tricks etc etc. Yet there are bucket loads here that continually try and silence any voice opposed to sf. Removing someone’s voice by sneering, mocking, name calling etc is an attempt to oppress that person. Hypocrisy from hypocrites. I know you can’t condemn rashers behaviour because he’s a good republican. Cowards just like your heroes in the ira, the heroes that hide in shadows and then in groups attack kids with iron bars.
You think everybody here is a Sinn Fein voter, yes I am but you have been getting into squabbles with other people who are not because they have a different opinion to yours, if they come across as being opposed to the government or are left leaning you presume they are Sinn Fein and everybody is getting sick of it.
Your loosing the plot Joe.
Hi Joe, I’m back for a bit more “sneering, mocking and name calling”. Firstly, as many here have gleaned, I have been described on this forum as a ‘west brit ‘ – a description I won’t argue with. Secondly, I am a lifelong Labour voter who will not vote labour again. What I am heartily sick of is each and every thread on this forum being hi jacked by the anti Sinn Fein mob. Iooked into yesterday’s threads and you were there for about twelve hours banging on about the same thing – now That’s fanaticism. This forum used to be fun but the constant anti SF rhetoric is spoiling it, much of the rhetoric coming from people who don’t even live here. So I call them when I see them. Plenty of people jeer me, I don’t whine about it. OK Joe?
Tom you are closer to SF than many here but to me looks like you had a road to damascus conversion of some sort. I am not an SF voter except for Lynn Boylan in euros as her colleague in NI raised issues our lot should have been doing. I am a FG voter for my sins. Your valid points & debate are being lost.
There are several fake poster ala Thomas Mc Donagh types who aim to deflect and destroy any debate. Don’t be one of them. Your views on SF are known and are yours to keep.
Not ok rashers as you still have made no attempt to explain what right you have to sneer at pilib. Personally I don’t care what you are sick of, that doesn’t give you a right to bully other commentators
If you looked at his profile he is a genuine person, from cavan, and unlike us not hiding behind a false profile.
The point I am trying to make is, you jumped in straight away and called rashers a sinn fein stooge and he has said he is not Sinn Fein.
Pinch of salt, he attacked a genuine person and then rants about how he’s sick of threads being ruined. There is no excuse, a bully is a bully, deflect all you like, like I said, pinch of salt re “I’m not sf”
Suit yourself, I’ll waste no more time on you. It’s instructive to note that the people who complain most about ‘attacks ‘ and ‘bullying ‘ aren’t slow about handing it out.
NO MATTER WHAT LABOUR DOES, IT IS STILL FINISHED UNDER JOAN AS LEADER. Look at what happened to the Greens at the last election?
Labour can shock all they like, but they are the Party set for the biggest shock. Before the 2011 Election many people thought there was no alternative to a Fianna Fáil and others Coalition, and sadly they have been proved right in many respects. That said I wouldn’t vote for FF, FG, SF, Lab. They are all tainted, and discredited, and strangers to the TRUTH.
Maybe, but that’s not the reason they won’t be getting my vote. For that would be a stupid reason not to vote for someone, though I do understand why a FG\Labour supporter would want us to forget the past, 5 years.
I see Hugh has wrongfully marked this article as an “analysis” rather than an opinion piece.
Newsflash for you Hugh:
Opinion =/= Analysis
Making a joke of gay marriage, shows the referendum was just a vote catcher for both parties. Shame on them.and again they come out defending the indefensible.
WHO SAID IT WORKED, NOW THAT IS A JOKE…
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