Backed against the mother of all walls, Prime Minister Scott Morrison appears to have scurried back to his one true form: Scotty From Marketing, the Ad Man.
[jwplayer HOvcqBMa]
After announcing a raft of absurdly long-overdue Federal measures set to be implemented across bushfire-affected regions, Morrison and his fellow party goons practically fell over themselves not to begin rolling them out, but to extol their own virtues via a bafflingly produced ad spruiking the Liberal Party.
Morrison posted the short video, which cannot be read as anything other than a party advertisement, on social media late yesterday evening. The video was almost immediately harangued to within an inch of its own life thanks to its rather tone-deaf construction and content, which even goes so far as to include the very election campaign-ish “Authorised by S Morrison, Liberal Party, Canberra” tag at the end.
We’re putting more Defence Force boots on the ground, more planes in the sky, more ships to sea, and more trucks to roll in to support the bushfire fighting effort and recovery as part of our co-ordinated response to these terrible #bushfires pic.twitter.com/UiOeYB2jnv
— Scott Morrison (@ScottMorrisonMP) January 4, 2020
Despite copping the mother of all pizzlings, the jaunty video and its NowThis-ass backing track remains up at the time of writing.
Rather than address criticism of the ad directly, Morrison dug his heels in on Twitter in the hours after its release, oddly insisting the true – albeit fairly Not The Fucking Point, Scott – fact that all political videos, by law, require that disclosure.
The same practice is rightly employed by the Leader of the Opposition and the Labor Party. This is required and standard practice in Australia.
— Scott Morrison (@ScottMorrisonMP) January 4, 2020
Which would be all well and good if the videos were authorised on the behalf of the Australian Government (which would make them a legitimate policy announcement) rather than the Liberal Party itself (which in this instance makes it political boot-licking of the grossest order).
Further still, the Federal Liberal Party social media team has been in overdrive, producing auto-fellatio content at light speed.
Our Defence Force is providing boots on the ground, planes in the sky and ships at sea, to support the bushfire fighting effort and recovery. Read more about our bushfire response: https://t.co/GJItGy0N7B pic.twitter.com/vN6FUYhPJN
— Liberal Party (@LiberalAus) January 4, 2020
The kicker here is twofold.
Firstly, the photo the Liberals used appears to be a photoshopped stock image that originally featured a Polish soldier.
https://twitter.com/andrewfelix/status/1213424091362758658
Secondly, according to the Australian Defence Association, the ads fairly blatantly contravene non-partisanship agreements regarding Governments using the ADF for political point scoring.
1) Party-political advertising milking ADF support to civil agencies fighting bushfires is a clear breach of the (reciprocal) non-partisanship convention applying to both the ADF & Ministers/MPs. 2) Also cliche-ridden. 3) Its “defence force”, not “Defence Force”. #auspol #ausdef https://t.co/RlepHHbIx9
— Australia Defence Association (@austdef) January 4, 2020
While the level of vitriol directed at the ad and at Morrison directly has been large, the most prominent angry voice has come from former PM Kevin Rudd, who stated Morrison was “no longer fit” to hold the country’s top office.
For God’s sake! On a day we have catastrophic fire conditions, in the midst of a genuine national crisis, Morrison, the marketing guy, does what? He releases a Liberal Party ad! He is no longer fit to hold the high office of prime minister. https://t.co/1OZqEZalOa
— Office of Kevin Rudd, 26th PM of Australia (@MrKRudd) January 4, 2020
The Ad Man, folks. He loves an ad.
