POLITICAL AD WATCH - Will Golding's flip flop his chances?

Published in the Jamaica Gleaner: Sunday | July 29, 2007

The credibility of Jamaica Labour Party (JLP) leader, Bruce Golding, which has always been a subtext of PNP campaign strategy on the platform, has emerged from the shadows into media mainstream with a newspaper advertisement casting doubt on the trust-worthiness of the Opposition leader.

The full-page advertisement first appeared in the afternoon tabloid, The Star, on Wednesday and then in The Gleaner last Friday.

Character attack

Titled, 'De pon di line', the ad has a drawing of Golding in business suit walking a tight rope between the bell of the Jamaica Labour Party and the lighthouse of the National Democratic Move-ment (NDM), which he founded before walking away to return to the JLP ahead of the 2002 election.

His attire is completed by a striped tie, in the colours of the JLP and the NDM and, for footwear, he has chosen loose-fitting rubber flip-flops.

From one side of his mouth, Golding is affirming his passion for the NDM, and from the other side, he is saying he has no desire, or yearning, or appetite to go back to the JLP. The tag line at the bottom of the page asks the questions, 'Can You Trust this Man?'

This is a classic attack-on- character advertisement in which one party or candidate seeks to degrade the credentials of the opposing party or candidate.

In addition to their traditional loyalties, party affiliation or position on the issues, opinion polls in many countries have shown that voters regard the character and trustworthiness of candidates very high among their reasons for making their voting choice.

In this case, the ad also plays on one of the concerns of the electorate as various Jamaican opinion polls have consistently shown PNP president and Prime Minister Portia Simpson Miller with a higher 'favourability' rating than Golding.

For example, a June 22-25 poll for CVM-TV, showed the Prime Minister with a 53.1 per cent rating compared to 41 per cent for Golding.

Of course, attack ads on character usually attract retaliation and can sometimes get nasty. In the 2002 election, for example, Political Ombudsman Bishop Herro Blair had to appeal to the parties to refrain from character assassination and personal attacks and stick to the issues after some very damaging ads appeared.

At that time, one full-page newspaper ad carried the headline 'DON'T TRUST THIS MAN' over a picture of Prime Minister P.J. Patterson and 'Scandals' of 1991 like 'Rollins land deal' and 'Shell waiver'.

The PNP responded. One TV ad targeted then JLP leader, Edward Seaga, showing images of him with selections from past statements like 'Black scandal bag' and new ones like 'Jamaicans are drunk with rum' and 'If we lose this election, God gone to sleep'.

One Jamaica, two visions

If the 2007 election race remains as tight as some experts are suggesting, Bishop Blair will be busy again, asking both sides to cool it.

Contrasting television com-mercials by the PNP and the JLP have framed the election as a choice between 'not changing course' and 'must change course'.

Following on the heavily rotated '$500 billion Investments' TV commercial, the PNP launched 'Investments 2' on Tuesday night.

The later version of the commercial also shows off major development and infrastructure projects such as the Norman Manley International Airport development and expan-sion, the Winchester Business Centre, the Fiesta Hotel, the Half-Way Tree Transportation Centre, Highway 2000 and the Port of Kingston.

The narrator tells us that "a new dawn has arrived" in Jamaica as a result of these investments which are driving greater production in agriculture, tourism and other sectors, and across sections, Jamaicans are shown reaping the benefits.

The commercial ends with the promise that under the next PNP government "more peace, progress and prosperity will be there for everyone". The closing tag line is, 'One Jamaica, one family; shaping the future together, vote PNP'.

Rural focus

The JLP presents a different view of Jamaica in its 'Take a Stand' TV commercials.

The ads open with the JLP theme song, Jamaica Needs a change now. Then a male voice comes in, "Madam Prime Minister, you got your chance; now you and the PNP got to go."

One ad targets rural women voters, and opens with images of rural residents picking their way over very bad roads. Some persons are carrying water in buckets on their heads.

Then a young woman says into the camera that she has passed her "subjects, but can't find a job."

An older woman laments that "the only time government know people is when election time come".

In the second commercial, the focus is on men, and one man looking like a farmer is photographed in a field, but the message is that he cannot make ends meet.

A second, in a close-up shot, is also presented as a victim of no opportunities under the PNP. He says he is 48 years old, cannot find a job and is ashamed that he cannot support his daughter.

"Mi haffi leave har with har mother," as he comes close to sobbing. The ad ends with an affirmation that Golding and a JLP government would change all that.

If the ads are to be believed, the parties are surely giving voters a clear choice. Of course, both cannot be right.