Propaganda: Haz We Had Enuff Yet?

This is what set off my rage-o-meter yesterday.

Canadians may be growing weary of - even hostile to - all those Economic Action Plan ads the Harper government has been pumping out for the last four years.

Eight polls the Finance Department commissioned between 2009 and 2012 suggest the TV, radio, print and Internet ads are starting to fizzle - and annoying some people.

. . .
The eight surveys, commissioned from four polling firms for almost $300,000, have asked the same core questions of random samples of 1,000 people contacted by telephone.

'Even hostile'? Everyone I know is thoroughly and MASSIVELY enraged by the ads and billboards and website badges and and and. . .

It is, quite simply, propaganda.

And clearly not very smart propaganda, because it is not working.

But, in a move that tells you everything you need to know about this truth- and evidence-averse gang of vandals, they're going to keep pouring our dough down that money-pit.

The Harper government continues to buy ad time for its Economic Action Plan, including for Super Bowl Sunday football just last month, when Human Resources and Skills Development bought a series of pre-game ads featuring the EAP logo. The coming 10-week ad campaign by the Finance Department, which launches Monday, will reprise last fall's version.

Today's rage-o-meter was set off by spending yet more dough on focus groups to tweak the CONjob tarsands propaganda.

Focus-group testing on what the Harper government calls its Responsible Resource Development campaign found the advertising to be light on facts but uplifting and patriotic, according to a government-commissioned study.

The fruits of that taxpayer-funded labour will again be on display this spring as a second wave of ads — designed to persuade Canadians of "the importance and impact of Canada's energy sector" — hits the air.

Natural Resources Canada has budgeted $9 million in the current 2012-13 fiscal year for ads that show a cross-section of resource industries in a job-friendly and environmentally sensitive light.

What? The oily companies we fund with corporate welfare can't afford their own fucking propaganda?

The ads repeat and repeat and repeat ad nauseum.

But mostly they are INSULTING.

Yes, fellow and sister citizens, they really do think we are that stupid.

For the full picture of how this government is pissing our money up the propaganda rope, look at this.

Surely this bullshit has far outstripped Adscam by now.

I'm not great at naming things, but this needs a catchy title. Suggestions? #CONprop?

Also. Paging Stephen Lautens for a suitable Demotivational Poster on Propaganda.