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AS REFERENDUMS GO, the upcoming children’s referendum has been fairly uncontroversial so far.
Given that all of the mainstream political parties are advocating a Yes vote, there has been criticism of the lack of debate the proposed constitutional amendment had created and a fear that turnout will be low among an apathetic public.
But that has not stopped the tradition of parties and advocacy groups erecting posters urging people to vote a particularly way. In this instance we have had only posters which advocate a ‘Yes’ vote as the fractioned ‘No’ campaign has so far failed to erect any similar piece of cardboard.
But what do the posters mean? A Twitter user asked us recently if we would put them under the same scrutiny as we did the posters during the Fiscal Compact referendum earlier this year.
We were only too happy to oblige and our two experts – Dr Eoin O’Malley, lecturer in Law and Government at DCU, and graphic designer Ronan McDonnell of A Worthy Cause – were happy to help us out once more.
O’Malley believes that the sufficient resources of the Yes side has allowed it to dominate the debate to the extent that there is not much of a debate at all: ”They are able to frame the referendum as being for children’s rights, which suggests in people’s minds that if it’s ‘yes for children’, no must be for something pretty nasty. This phrase, used by Children’s Rights Alliance, I suspect is the most effective one. It is simple and suggestive.
He notes that all of the posters have children although different posters have different children in different moods. Some happy, some sad, some even bored. “It’s not clear which one would work best – I’d have thought a happy child; certainly not the bored one, who might just induce apathy in the public,” he adds.
McDonnell takes a more critical view from a design perspective: “They are a poor, insipid lot. Taken as a whole, they are a kaleidoscope of complacency, a largely disinterested attempt at persuasion. Clearly, their various commissioners have taken it as a given that the motion will easily pass.”
He believes the parties and interested organisations have put up posters “with a minimum attention to detail” adding that it’s as if they are saying of the proposed amendment: “We all know we have to fix it. But we just want you let you now we think so too, in case you’d like to vote for us in the next election.”
Fine Gael
Eoin O’Malley: “Fine Gael’s phrase, ‘Every Child Matters’ is one of those meaningless phrases that is hard to argue against, and linking it to a yes vote makes it powerful, because immediately the suggestion is that if you vote no, then every child doesn’t matter.”
Ronan McDonnell: “This is the finest poster of a bad lot. The message is clear. Technically it cannot be faulted without recourse to navel-gazing levels of detail. Its colours are thoughtful, but sombre, with just enough lift for the promotion of the message.
“It is legible, direct and yet it still lacks grace. The image of a concerned boy is obviously chosen to remind the viewer of the emotive nature of the referendum – our sympathy is begged for this young child clutching his teddy, alone in a world of untold hardship and weighty concern.
“Yet, this is such a leading image, it seems unreal; it loses impact. It is so posed, so full of contrivance, we understand at some basic level this child is a model and his hardship is superficial; at most he is unhappy at being sent to bed before the end of Scooby Doo.”
Labour Party
EOM: “The Labour poster has a clever take on the phrase ‘children should be seen and not heard’, but it doesn’t work for me. It might if the missing ‘not’ were replaced with another word it could have kept the metre of the original phrase.”
RMcD: “Let’s not dwell on the red-haired cailin-ness of the girl chosen to represent Ireland’s children. Let’s consider the type that sits on the banner which cuts across her like an Irish dancer’s sash. There is an odd hierarchy here. In good typographic layout the key message is emphasised, often times to the point of eclipsing the other type elements that support the message both grammatically and rhetorically.
“In this layout the stand out words, and those that are seen from the greatest distance, are ‘and heard’; these are presumably the most important in the hierarchy. We assume from the ‘and’ that something important was mentioned in the preceding small type.
“This ought to be the first point in a combined statement. And yet it is tiny, of far less than equal importance. At the same time we are loudly told that children should be heard. But then the Yes is smaller again – surely this is what they are “telling” us, vote Yes? So why is it smaller? Also, the V on vote should be upper case.”
Sinn Féin and ‘Yes for Children’ (ISPCC, Barnardos and Children’s Rights Alliance
EOM: “Sinn Féin and CRA use colourful lettering – as you see for ads aimed at parents, such as for baby milk. Sinn Féin, whose posters don’t seem to have actually made it on to lampposts, also use a phrase from the 1916 Proclamation ‘cherish all the children of the nation equally’ to presumably make a broader point about how Irish nationalists love kids.”
RMcD: “Such is the strength of belief that Sinn Fein has in children’s rights, they even got a group of them to design their poster by the looks of it. From the top it is colourful, text is aligned right, then left, then a centred logo, all around the image of a smiling child. It’s not rocket science, thank god.”
RMcD: “There is some metaphor hidden in there, deep within the bad photoshop and drab layout. It is a big pencil, sure, but is the child making a mark? Has he stolen a giant’s pencil? Is he relying on ‘big people’ to make the mark his peers need for protection?
“Anyway, this follows Fine Gael’s lead, or vice versa, in having a slogan, and then repeating that same phrase, only smaller this time, as a url. Is this really necessary, or needless repetition, showing the lack of care that went into these posters?
“From a technical point of view, having a white bar across the base, holding logos is unimaginative. It is risky too, meaning the central logo, Barnardo’s, may get chewed up with zip-ties. Oh, and in case you forgot this referendum is about children, they put the word “children” in varied colours. They love that colouredy-stuff, the little ‘uns.”
Fianna Fáil
EOM: “It’s visually quite distinctive and well-designed. The phrase ‘Protect Children’ is again an attempt to frame the referendum, which those on the no side might take issue with. The phrase is pretty anodyne, but that doesn’t really matter.”
The ‘No’ side – Unmarried and Separated Families of Ireland
EOM: “The no side is smaller and seems to consist of a number of groups and arguments. A Catholic group, who argue that it will mean the rights of families will be affected; those who say that this is unnecessary because the rights already exist in law; and those who argue that the state has not shown itself to be better than parents in providing for the welfare of children.
“This last group (above) have useD the phrase, ‘if you tolerate this, then your children’s children will be next’, which is a very specific if not immediate threat. The challenge for the no side is to counteract the frame that yes is ‘for children’.
“It’s a pity there are so few No posters to look at – we could then see could they counter the dominant frame that the referendum is to ‘protect children’.
“Presumably they would have ‘Protect Families – Vote No’, but I doubt that would be successful. You’d need to include something about children, so perhaps ‘Children belong in their families – Vote No’.”
RMcD: “If your message really means something, then you ought to at least put your name to it. You also don’t need to jazz it up with gradients last seen in the cloakrooms of 90s raves, or a mix and match of equally nasty serif and sanserif fonts. The double exclamation marks are a new low in the history of punctuation.
“What exactly is the message? Your children’s children will be next, as in each successive generation comes after the previous, thus continuing your legacy through your direct descendants? Or they will be next for something in particular – an inheritance perhaps? Also, what are we tolerating exactly – atrocious design? There is no compelling message here at all.”
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I think all posters should be banned for two reasons
the money that is wasted and the mess it leaves behind I still see election posters in the ditches.
I agree a lot but But for some people it may be an effective method of communication. Take the Internet out of your life, and maybe TV. And then see how useful the Posters are.
Vinnie
I think we should ban smoking within twenty metres of posters to allow us read them in comfort without having to allow the stink permeate our clothes when we are off to the pub to meet friends!
radio,newspapers word of mouth,the booklets everyone should have got..
yea I agree ban smoking,cars and anything else that might hinder the 5seconds it takes to read these posters..
I’m voting no just because ends wants a yes vote
Vinnie. What a dreadful reason to vote no. “Ends” will be gone long before the consequences of this referendum. Vote for the good of the country. Not so you can be smug on the off-chance that you meet Kenny…
It’s not really I can’t agree with any of his so called political beliefs he stands for everything that I dont..
I can reason with sf/ff/lab but fg are just the worst party in our history..
if I ever met Kenny I wouldn lower myself to speek to him
Vinnie, and if Enda said jumping off bridges was a stupid thing to do, would you hop into your swimming gear?
Vote because of your beliefs, not someone else’s, and if you don’t have beliefs on the subject either educate yourself or stay away from the voting booth.
@ms mor…..
jumping off bridges is stupid well I taught so obviously you think other wise…
no iv made ny decision
All the posters are loaded with emotionally provocative imagery and slogans but completely devoid of substance or truth. They are pretty sickening to be honest.
The worst part is that most people are ignorant of the actual issues and will probably follow the majority of the posters and vote yes for fear of being seen as someone who hates kids.
A poster tackling the actual reality of childcare in Ireland would be too unwieldy:
The State loved its children so much it gave 170,000 of them to the Church to mind. Unfortunately the children were physically and sexually tortured by the Church, and because the State was so in thrall to the Church that it allowed all the torture to continue. On the upside it was mostly children from poor backgrounds that suffered so the media never made a big issue of the odd death of a child here and there – one institution even managed to lose 60 children through death in it’s first year of existence. Needles to say we expanded that Institution and it’s is estimated it ‘lost’ 2,400 children over the 40 years of its existence.
Then the State had a great idea and it handed over childcare to the Dept. of Health now the HSE and, would you believe it, children got mislaid. Hundreds of them. To be sure we lost some through death as well mostly children from poor backgrounds. The media made the odd fuss now and again, which was a bit of a sea change, but the HSE managed to keep themselves from getting wet.
But things are different now – HONEST! Now we’re going to give other people’s children to other people and things will be grand at last.
Trust Us. We Know Stuff About Caring For Children.
I’m voting NO because the YES campaign made that little lad carry a huge pencil……..
haha poor chap imagine the books he has to bring around…
don’t trust the government at all bunch of sneky tears
The referendum is about one thing – positioning the Government in a positive light. It has nothing to do with children’s rights. The posters simply reflect that reality.
The cable tie on the ginger’s face makes it look like she works in a call centre.
You think it is ok to use the word Ginger … if that child was black would I be allowed to use the term Ni***r????
No you wouldn’t.
Why????
Sean- you know perfectly well that the two words do not hold the same emotional weight. There was never a time where millions of people were bought, sold, transported, raped, murdered and enslaved en masse because of their red hair. Your comment trivialises this history and is not very clever.
What a crap flawed-on-every-level analogy. Try again, Sean.
VOTE NO!
Lol. Alive! Bringing the ’30s back one lie at a time.
This is a non-political item and referendum ( thus why its on a Saturday of course )
Why are there ANY posters!????
Green Monkey – that’s why I’m voting “NO!”
Were the children whose images were used asked for their permission? Have any of the parties taken into account the number of pedophiles still around in this society? Do they think it a good idea that young children should be dragged into their political machinations?
Christine “won’t somebody please think of the children”
Seriously?!?! I mean seriously are you for real. Ya know what let’s use that logic and shut down all kids TVs shows like iCarly and Hanna Montana because a pedo could be watching. Get real. Child models are paid for commercial advertising and paid and images approved by parents by model release contract. I hate these won’t someone think of the children brigade
Um Eye See All isn’t that the WHOLE POINT of this referendum? Thinking of the children!!!!
Not when it’s abouts hysterical views it’s not.
I used to think posters and leaflets were a waste of money, but I agree they are a useful communication tool, even articles about posters get people talking! I didn’t notice any posters for local elections here in UK earlier this year, local turnout was 14% (!!). Elections are coming up in Nov for directly elected police commissioner for each area – no posters and no debate in the media. I’d nearly say I’d like to see a few posters around the place, just to remind people there was an election!
The posters are clever enough and rely on the voter not looking too deeply into what is being voted for. I’m still leaning on the No side as I havn’t heard any cogent argument as to why the constitution needs to be amended before children can be protected. On a related topic I can see the Cormac Lucey write today that a YES vote would make imigration law problematic due to the rights of ‘all children’ wording.
seriously look at what all the yes voting got us nowhere, well if it aint broke don’t fix it,
vote no, because the corrupt ones want yes
Not that these posters should really make a difference anyway, but look at the FF one; three middle aged MEN. You’d think that somewhere in the party organization that they’d at least have been able to find one woman to represent “motherhood”!
Wait until after the referendum to have your go at FF, would ya?
Right someone explain what the children’s referendum is all about.
Thanks Hazel I hadn’t a breeze of the booklet sent your link explains the reasons for voting no .Now I know what I’m voting
This is the way it will pan out, we will still have secret courts, they will change nothing and they will bring in forced adoptions and everything else the is happening in Britain, they will create a manufactured scare and then mandate vaccines. They will pose as saviours mandating these vaccines, saying they are protecting us, with all the media behind them as they line their pockets in the background off big eugenics pharma. We will not have to worry about abortion in the future, because no women will be able to conceive. These people know what they are doing, they are taught about the myth of over-population in college, it is a big secret amongst them, it will be worse than 1984.
Funding and Ideology: These three organisations surface again and again: the ISPCC,Barnardos and the CRA. The ideologies of their donors and of the organizations, however, are a little suspect. For example, the Campaign for Children lists as one of its two donors the Atlantic Philanthropies. Founded by US businessman Chuck Feeney, the Atlantic Philanthropies donated €17 million to fund homosexual rights in Ireland. Two of its directors are leaded at the forefront of abortion rights: Sara Lawrence-Lightfoot and Peter Smitham. The latter is also a director of Marie Stopes International, a major abortion provider. Barnardos in the UK recommends the website of Marie Stopes International. Furthermore, its CEO Anne Marie Carrie is strongly in support of homosexual adoption of children.
I have read any comment that I have made.
I take it yours is a Yes vote Ciaran!
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