Yes, there’s plenty of reason to wonder what the Canadian public is getting for millions of dollars in ads intended to advertise…nothing at all. But I’ll point out that the answer may be even worse than one might suspect at first glance.

Here’s the background to the latest set of ad spending:

Taxpayer-funded government ads are supposed to inform citizens about programs and services, according to Treasury Board guidelines.

But when the Conservatives recently put out a tender for a major new ad agency contract that could see the feel-good “economic action plan” brand continued until 2016, they highlighted consumer confidence and the direction of the country as key objectives.

The government acknowledged Tuesday that “action plan” TV ads currently blanketing broadcasts of the NHL playoffs don’t contain any actual measures from this spring’s federal budget — although the ads are tagged with the budget’s #eap2013 handle.
…
Despite the current radio disclaimer, the Harper government has not included any caution about MPs still having to approve the “economic action plan 2013″ claims being made in its TV ads.

A spokesman for the Privy Council Office, which serves the prime minister, said that’s because there’s nothing new in the TV ads.

“The recent radio ads launched by the Department of Finance contained new measures for consideration by Parliament as part of the March 21, 2013 budget,” spokesman Raymond Rivet said in an email.

“This is why a disclaimer was included. The recent EAP television advertisements did not contain new measures and aired before Budget 2013.”

So what would we expect to be the result of advertising which is expressly aimed purely at “confidence” rather than actual outcomes, at expectations rather than reality?

The most obvious possibility – and the one which we likely see as both the Cons’ intention and the primary source of outrage – is that it’s purely a matter of partisan gain. If Canadians are more satisfied with the economy (whether or not that satisfaction is based on their actual interests), then the Cons have a greater chance of clinging to power in 2015. And Stephen Harper has never been reluctant to spend as much money as he can get his hands on to benefit his own political future.

I’ll take at face value that political interests likely reflect the Cons’ main intention surrounding the EAP ads. But distortion of Canada’s partisan landscape is far from the most dangerous possible result of a massive confidence-boosting campaign.

Instead, the greatest risk may arise if the ads succeed in achieving their goals. If the Cons actually reach nearly every Canadian with constant messages about “jobs! growth! prosperity!” and drown out any voices of concern or countervailing considerations, then the result may simply be to widen the gap between perception and economic reality. Or in other words, to inflate an expectations bubble which is doomed to pop at some point.

Now, the Cons may figure that irrational exuberance is a public good – or at least a risk worth taking if it helps to win an extra term in office. But those of us whose real lives are at stake may have reason to disagree.

Which isn’t to say that any given scheme to short Canada is particularly likely to succeed. But we should expect that our federal government would be primarily focused on improving the actual lives of Canadians, rather than deliberately putting perceptions first. And since the Cons have made it abundantly clear that they have their priorities wrong, we should be eager to put somebody more responsible in charge.

Desperate parents in Edmonton who feel they can’t care for their newborns will soon have a new option to give up their babies. Two hospitals in the city are opening so-called “Angel’s Cradles” where overwhelmed parents can drop off their babies anonymously The boxes will allow parents to place an infant inside a bassinet in [...]

This and that for your weekend reading.

- Helene Leblanc argues that we should make sure the Internet is treated as a commons accessible to all, rather than a privilege denied to many (particularly in rural areas): Many Canadians living outside urban centres do not have access to high speed broadband Internet and a significant number connect at speeds of 1.5 megabits per second — only marginally faster than dial-up.

In the year 2000 Estonia declared Internet access a fundamental human right, something essential for life in the 21st century, and launched a program to expand rural access. Finland (Read more…)

This and that for your weekend reading.

- Helene Leblanc argues that we should make sure the Internet is treated as a commons accessible to all, rather than a privilege denied to many (particularly in rural areas):

Many Canadians living outside urban centres do not have access to high speed broadband Internet and a significant number connect at speeds of 1.5 megabits per second — only marginally faster than dial-up.

In the year 2000 Estonia declared Internet access a fundamental human right, something essential for life in the 21st century, and launched a program to expand rural access. Finland has declared that by 2015, access to a 100 megabits-per-second connection will be a legal right. The U.S.’s National Broadband Plan has set a similar target of Internet service speed of 100 megabits-per-second in at least 100 million homes by 2020.
…
It is essential that residents of Canada’s Arctic region have access to reliable, affordable communication networks — not only to protect our nation’s sovereignty and for emergency response, but to benefit from the many opportunities living in the 21st century can afford. Emergency responders also need the means to communicate rapidly in the event of disasters in the Arctic and elsewhere.
…
As government, it is the Conservatives’ responsibility to do more than repeat mindless rhetoric on the economy; they must take action to promote Canadians’ long-term prosperity. Canada needs to be strategic in securing broadband infrastructure for rural and remote regions. A lack of equitable access to high‐speed broadband will leave businesses in rural and remote regions behind in a global economy.

- Ishmael Daro reports that the Cons are already planning for three more years of publicly-funded economic propaganda, while Mike de Souza confirms that the Cons plan to spend yet more money claiming credit for past programs as a substitute for doing anything about climate change. All of which is to confirm that we should be far more concerned about the hundreds of millions of dollars being burned by Stephen Harper’s central command than the comparatively trifling cost of MP communications.

- Angella MacEwen points out why we shouldn’t simply assume away the problem of unemployment. And Haroon Siddiqui confirms that the Cons are still pushing to use temporary foreign workers to drive down Canadian wages and opportunities.

- Finally, Adam Radwanski recognizes that the Ontario NDP has been effective enough to force Kathleen Wynne to at least give some substance to her party’s rhetoric about a “fair society”. But Trish Hennessy and Hugh Mackenzie rightly note that Libs’ overarching plan still involves long-term austerity rather than social progress.

#Fashion #Models #swimsuits

I don’t know why I looked at this, but since I’m suffering (and holding in my stomach and contemplating exercise), so too must you. Russian model Irina Shayk stars in the Beach Bunny Summer 2013 advertising campaign. The…

#Fashion #Celebrity

The long awaited commercial for Beyoncé’s collaboration with H&M is out!

Beyoncé as Mrs. Carter in H&M, directed by Swedish film and music video director Jonas Åkerlund in the Bahamas, features Beyoncé singing and dancing on the beach in various H&M pieces.

Jonas Åkerlund previously directed Queen Bey in the “Telephone” music video with Lady Gaga, but this  commercial reminds me of Beyoncé’s “Baby Boy” clip.

You can see the print campaign, photographed by Inez and Vinoodh here.

The Liberals and Justin Trudeau now have ads of their own, and they stand in stark contrast to the negative Conservative personal attack ads of last week. Take a look:

And a French ad that’s a little different visually:

Have to run; I’ll have some thoughts later.

Assorted content for your Sunday reading.

- I wouldn’t go as far as Haroon Siddiqui in suggesting that all temporary foreign worker programs be shut down entirely (at least absent some concurrent change to encourage a flow of new workers who are able to set down roots in Canada). But he’s dead on in his scathing assessment of the Cons’ current version:

Now Canada is flooded with temporary workers — 338,189 as of December 2012. In fact, there may be more. Ottawa has no way of knowing how many stayed behind at the end of their temporary visas. Canada has no exit controls.

They were all brought in ostensibly because of extensive skilled labour shortages.
But with 1.33 million jobless, there’s no shortage of labour for the 250,000 job vacancies. That’s nearly six jobless Canadians for every available job.

As for skills shortages, there are certainly some. But look at where the temporary workers landed, as the Globe and Mail has done.

Its sector-by-sector breakdown shows that only 9,300 of the 338,000 workers ended up in scientific and technical services. Less than 17,000 are in the manufacturing sector, and only 19,000 in construction. The highest number, 44,745, are in accommodation and food services.

That’s your foreign worker pouring coffee at Tim Hortons, baking pizzas at Boston Pizza, making beds at some motel and tending to a senior citizen somewhere.

…The real issue is that Canadians don’t want those jobs, certainly not at the wages on offer. So the skills shortages mantra is a bit of a scam.

- Meanwhile, Marc Zwelling notes that RBC’s version of offshoring may have hit closer to home for some citizens since it reflected a loss of white-collar work – while hinting at the fact that we should be equally concerned about deliberate attempts to attack wages throughout Canada’s economy. And Frank Graves looks at Canadians’ attitudes toward immigration – predictably finding far more anti-immigrant animus among the Cons than among other parties’ supporters (which might explain the Cons’ preference for shuffling new imports out of the country again once employers are done with them).

- Allan Gregg writes about the effects of attack ads on public perceptions of government. But he glosses over one rather important point: the Cons and other right-wing parties may well see it as a plus to discredit both their political opponents, and the idea of accomplishing anything worthwhile through democratic action.

- Finally, for those who haven’t yet seen PSAC’s ad on the Cons’ environmental destruction, it’s well worth a look:

Assorted content for your Sunday reading.

- I wouldn’t go as far as Haroon Siddiqui in suggesting that all temporary foreign worker programs be shut down entirely (at least absent some concurrent change to encourage a flow of new workers who are able to set down roots in Canada). But he’s dead on in his scathing assessment of the Cons’ current version: Now Canada is flooded with temporary workers — 338,189 as of December 2012. In fact, there may be more. Ottawa has no way of knowing how many stayed behind at the end of their temporary visas. Canada has (Read more…) exit controls.

They were all brought in ostensibly because of extensive skilled labour shortages. But with 1.33 million jobless, there’s no shortage of labour for the 250,000 job vacancies. That’s nearly six jobless Canadians for every available job.

As for skills shortages, there are certainly some. . . . → Read More: Accidental Deliberations: Sunday Morning Links

#Fashion #Models

Photographer Michael Thompson is behind the lens for the Tiffany & Co. Spring/Summer 2013 advertising campaign. This season’s campaign features top models Karen Elson, Liya Kebede, Doutzen Kroes, Arizona Muse and Liu Wen. The f…

Assorted content for your weekend reading.

- Daniel Cohn theorizes that the only real problem with RBC’s outsourcing of Canadian jobs is that they called attention to the government policies which facilitated that outcome. But for those of us who think there’s actually a problem with an economy designed around minimizing wages and employment, Susan McIsaac and Matthew Mendelsohn offer some suggestions to turn the tide. And Tavia Grant points out that the Cons’ preference for cheap, disposable foreign labour might help employers, but certainly doesn’t produce positive results for Canada as a whole.

- In the same vein, Andrew (Read more…) discusses how the last great set of attacks on workers in the name of economic efficiency proved an utter failure in producing any policy outcome other than increased inequality: Thatcherism did not provide an enduring solution to the problem of how to attain stable growth. Business profitability was . . . → Read More: Accidental Deliberations: Saturday Afternoon Links

Assorted content for your weekend reading.

- Daniel Cohn theorizes that the only real problem with RBC’s outsourcing of Canadian jobs is that they called attention to the government policies which facilitated that outcome. But for those of us who think there’s actually a problem with an economy designed around minimizing wages and employment, Susan McIsaac and Matthew Mendelsohn offer some suggestions to turn the tide. And Tavia Grant points out that the Cons’ preference for cheap, disposable foreign labour might help employers, but certainly doesn’t produce positive results for Canada as a whole.

- In the same vein, Andrew Jackson discusses how the last great set of attacks on workers in the name of economic efficiency proved an utter failure in producing any policy outcome other than increased inequality:

Thatcherism did not provide an enduring solution to the problem of how to attain stable growth. Business profitability was indeed restored, but this did not flow though into much higher levels of productive investment. In both Britain and the United States (especially the former), finance expanded as a share of the economy at the expense of industry, which has collapsed.

London has become the most important global financial centre and home base to much of the global oligarchy, leading to great wealth for a few and many low-paid jobs catering to their needs. Meanwhile, much of the rest of the country, the cradle of the Industrial Revolution, has never fully recovered from massive de-industrialization.

In Britain, as in the United States, “flexible” labour markets and the erosion of unionization led to the decoupling of wages from productivity growth, making growth dangerously dependent upon an unsustainable inflation of house prices and the growth of household debt.

A hands-off approach to regulation of business also set the stage for the growth of a speculative and destructive financial system, which would have collapsed in 2008 if the government had not come to the rescue.

Thatcherism did nothing to raise the living standards of the great majority. In the Britain, as in the U.S. and Canada, the incomes of the great majority have stagnated in real terms since the early 1980s, as most of the fruits of economic growth have gone to the top 1 per cent. Economic security was undermined by deep cuts to unemployment insurance and public pensions, and by the erosion of public services.

Margaret Thatcher was indeed a pivotal historical figure. But her legacy is one of heightened inequality, economic stagnation and instability.

- Chantal Hebert points out the limitations on the Cons’ attack strategy:

If the Conservative black ops against Trudeau succeed, a significant chunk of those voters could be as likely if not more to turn to a centrist-led NDP as to want to help Harper secure a fourth mandate.

That trend is not based strictly on a cyclical tide for change. At this juncture an overwhelming majority of Canadians — around 70 per cent — agree as to the prime minister that they do not want, even if it means replacing Harper with an untested Liberal leader or an untried federal NDP.

Harper’s predicament is more akin to a multiplication of slow leaks than a major puncture. That could make it harder to fix. To reduce the current battle to a personality contest that can be won with attack ads is to miss the central point that it is also unfolding on the field of values.

Polls suggest that despite sustained Conservative efforts, Canadians are more likely to identify with Liberal- or NPD-inspired policies such as the Charter of Rights and Freedoms and medicare than with the favoured icons of the Canadian right. 

- And Bruce Johnstone notes that the Cons’ attacks on Justin Trudeau are far from the first inaccurate ads of their majority tenure:

In the Machiavellian world of politics as practised in Ottawa these days, the end justifies the means. If defeating Justin Trudeau or NDP Leader Thomas Mulcair can be achieved by attack ads, so be it.

Case in point, Mulcair was vilified in Tory attack ads for his comments that Canada was showing symptoms of Dutch disease, in which the manufacturing sector suffers declining output and competitiveness as a result of high exchange rates caused by high energy prices.

Yet a recent study by Statistics Canada indicates that Central Canada saw the largest decline in economic output and labour productivity between 2000 and 2010. And the Ontario and Quebec manufacturing sectors bore the brunt of that decline. At the same time, there was a shift in capital investment from east to west due to increased investment in the natural resources sector. And what were the reasons for this shift in capital investment, economic output and labour productivity? Changes in exchange rates, commodity prices and global competition, the study said.

Sounds a lot like Dutch disease to me.

- Finally, Mike de Souza continues his run of important reports on the Cons’ environmental policy – first by highlighting the Cons’ willingness to give Exxon a veto over the terms of a new national park (featuring approval to drill horizontally under Sable Island), then by pointing out that tens of millions of dollars of public money are being used for research intended to do nothing but benefit tar sands operators.

I can’t stand most advertising but this ad for a public bus service in Denmark is hands down the bomb. Hollywood pack your bags (and get on the bus).

On Thursday morning a London radio station, FM96 (which may or may not have London’s best rock) uploaded a humorous video parody of the Conservative Party of Canada’s anti-Justin Trudeau attack ads. Essentially, the “Conservatives” warned electing Trudeau meant “four years of your wife wanting to sleep with the Prime Minister.” Better, therefore, to stick with Stephen Harper.

A humorous parody of over the top attack ads, to be sure, and one that was widely shared on social media during the day. Until late afternoon, when the video was suddenly pulled from YouTube. Clicking play left one with the (Read more…) message: “Removed by user.”

So, why was the ad removed? Did the morning shock jocks have second thoughts in the bright light of late afternoon? Were they pressured or threatened into taking it down? Several tweets to @FM96Rocks asking why the video went unanswered, although the dead video link . . . → Read More: A BCer in Toronto: London radio station’s yanked CPC/Trudeau parody ad is back online — without CPC logos

Here, building off of my previous analysis on the current positioning of Canada’s federal parties.

For further reading, see:- Bob Hepburn and Carol Goar on the purpose and effect of attack ads in general; and- Andrew Coyne on the Cons’ particular brand of personal attack, featuring some suggestions to reduce the amount of negative advertising.

Here, building off of my previous analysis on the current positioning of Canada’s federal parties.For further reading, see:- Bob Hepburn and Carol Goar on the purpose and effect of attack ads in general; and- Andrew Coyne on the Cons’ particular brand …

#Fashion #Models

More images have been released from the Salvatore Ferragamo Spring 2013 advertising campaign that debuted at the beginning of the year. Photographed by David Sims, the campaign features Brazilian beauty Raquel Zimmermann and top ma…

Internet Chronicle to host Fred Phelps homosexual fantasy fiction contest

by “Kilgore Trout” [a/k/a "Kilgoar"]

As originally posted on: The Internet Chronicle
April 14, 2013

WESTBORO BAPTIST — A pornographic image depicting Pastor Fred Phelps of the Westboro Baptist Church, famous for picketing the funerals of soldiers with incendiary anti-gay rhetoric, has drawn massive media attention due to its homosexual nature.

The Internet Chronicle has decided to celebrate this momentous occasion by hosting a Fred Phelps gay fan fiction writing contest. We encourage all readers to mail lascivious stories of any length featuring Fred Phelps to press@chronicle.su. The winner of the contest will have their story published and receive a magnificent, but undisclosed, prize*.

Rules are as follows:

1. No sex act is off the table, and in fact, the more depraved the story the more points.

2. Real stories of actual incidents of Fred Phelps’ flagrant homosexuality earn more points.

3. Make sure the subject line of your e-mail reads “FRED PHELPS CONTEST,” and don’t include anything but the story. We don’t care about your comments. Just send the story.

4. We must be able to masturbate to your story, or it will earn no points.

5. God hates Fred Phelps because he is a faggot.

* All “prizes” are subject to confiscation and may include surveillance devices to ensure proper use

Following up on this morning’s post on the federal political scene, I’ll offer a few observations on the Cons’ immediate attack ad against Justin Trudeau: Now, I’ve pointed out before that the Cons’ previous attack ads against Lib leaders succeeded pre…

This and that for your Tuesday reading.

- George Monbiot comments on the outsized influence of advertisers on children:

How many people believe this makes the world a better place? A company called TenNine has hung hoardings in the corridors and common rooms of 750 British schools. Among its clients are Nike, Adidas, Orange, Tesco and Unilever. It boasts that its “high impact platform delivers right to the heart of the 11-18 year old market“.

Other firms are closing in. Boomerang Media, which represents Sega, Atari, Virgin, Umbro and others, has persuaded schools to distribute Revlon perfume samples to their pupils. This campaign, it says, “was effectively linked into their PSHE and PE classes“. PSHE means personal, social, health and economic education, or “learning to live life well”. How the disbursement of perfume by teachers helps children to keep fit and live well is a mystery I will leave you to ponder.

Advertising in schools offers corporations a genuine captive market. Trade associations which defend the dark arts of persuasion argue that if you don’t like advertisements, then you don’t have to look at them. But in this case you do. While surveys suggest that roadside hoardings raise awareness of a company’s products among 28% of the people who pass them, posters in schools, according to TenNine, reach over 80%.

Every year, advertisers press a little further into our lives, shrinking the uncontaminated space in which we may live. In ways of which we are often scarcely aware, they change our perceptions of the world, alter our values, infiltrate the language.
…
In his book Childhood Under Siege, Joel Bakan shows how computer games and social networking are being merged to create new advertising platforms. The aim, according to an executive he quotes, is to “get users in the door to play for free and then monetise the hell out of them once they’re hooked”. One way is to issue points or virtual coinage to kids who click on advertisements.

All this is promoted as fun and freedom. Parents who try to restrict children’s access look like prudes and killjoys. “As our kids become immersed,” Bakan notes, “in a [corporate] culture that works to pry them loose from us, we become less able to find the connection, respect, authority and credibility we need to keep them safe, healthy and in the long term happy.”
…
So it didn’t take me long to decide to sign the open letter by a new campaign called Leave Our Kids Alone, asking for a ban on all advertising aimed at children under 11. It is long overdue: it’s a marvel that we have for so long tolerated this capture of children’s minds by companies exploiting their innocence and wonder. This is a campaign about more than advertising. It’s about who we are: free-thinking citizens, raised on the best information and judgment that parents and teachers can provide; or captive consumers, suckled at home and at school on subtle corporate lies. I urge you to join it.

- But Erika Shaker notes that corporate interests haven’t been able to completely override critical thought – with the Cons’ temporary foreign worker system looking like a prime example of an issue where the general public is rightly questioning why actual people have no place in Conservative and corporate decision-making.  And Ken Georgetti calls on the Cons to fix the system they’ve broken.

- Martin Regg Cohn points out that the Ontario Libs’ gas plant scandal also serves as a case in point as to the dangers of ill-advised privatization:

It was the Liberal embrace of privatization in 2004 that drove the government to contract out any new power generation — from gas-fired plants, solar and wind — to the private sector, explicitly sidelining government-owned Ontario Power Generation.
Think about that: OPG happens to have decades of experience in siting power plants — including nuclear reactors — across Ontario while engaging with local communities (ever notice our nukes aren’t plagued by active NIMBYism?). It also has enormous fiscal capacity to borrow money for power plant construction without resorting to parasitical U.S. private equity funds charging nearly criminal rates of interest and penalties.
Instead, the Liberals bought into the fantasy that privatization equals efficiency. And the shibboleth that the private sector always delivers on time and on budget.
Not in Mississauga, where the private sector ran out of time — and money. Eastern Power won the contract by bidding low for the project, but turned out to be a high-cost operator: Not only did it borrow money at 14 per cent (compounded quarterly), as the auditor noted incredulously, it demanded to be compensated for supposedly paying an administrative assistant at the rate of $110,000 a year.
So much for efficiency.

- Which offers a useful reminder to work on avoiding the same types of problems with a new Regina wastewater treatment plant.

- And finally, CBC reports that while Peter Penashue gets ever more shrill in shouting that he abused his ministerial authority in order to secure pork for his riding, his party refuses to even acknowledge that anything of the sort ever happened.