See text below.
EXCERPTS
Party: Conservative
The spot: "$1,200"
The plot: Styled as a public service announcement, the ad warns parents that Liberal leader Stéphane Dion will take away their yearly $1,200 child-care benefit, juxtaposing his image with that of an attractive young family on a beach.
...
The message: "The ad does . . . clearly articulate what the Tories stand for: less government intervention," says Gordon McMillan, president of Ottawa-based marketing agency McMillan.
"On child care, it takes a clear stand that Canadian parents are better off having $1,200 in their pockets than having a well-rounded, government-funded child-care program."
"If you elect Dion, you will lose your $1,200," says Jeff Musson, a 35-year-old Windsor voter and small business owner of Dynamite Network Solutions, an IT company.
...
The review: "It takes a fact, in this case, that Dion said he would scrap the $1,200 child-care benefit, and then manipulates it to an outrageous degree," McMillan says. "This is typical of attack advertising, and most people don't have the time to research the whole story."
"It's effective at framing this election again about what the Liberal leader will or will not do, but a little bit misleading at the same time," Musson says.
"This ad symbolizes the problem of using ads to discuss complex issues," Rose says. "The ad distorts the Liberal position by claiming that Dion wants to cut the child-care benefit, when his comments were to replace it with a more robust child-care support."
- reprinted from Canwest News Service