criticsm of anorexic ralph lauren model...thank god

The criticism that Ralph Lauren doesn't want you to see!

Last month, Xeni blogged about the photoshop disaster that is this Ralph Lauren advertisement, in which a model's proportions appear to have been altered to give her an impossibly skinny body ("Dude, her head's bigger than her pelvis"). Naturally, Xeni reproduced the ad in question. This is classic fair use: a reproduction "for purposes such as criticism, comment, news reporting," etc.

However, Ralph Lauren's marketing arm and its law firm don't see it that way. According to them, this is an "infringing image," and they thoughtfully took the time to send a DMCA takedown notice to our awesome ISP, Canada's Priority Colo. One of the things that makes Priority Colo so awesome is that they don't automatically act on DMCA takedowns. Instead, they pass them on to us and we talk about whether they pass the giggle-test.

This one doesn't.

So, instead of responding to their legal threat by suppressing our criticism of their marketing images, we're gonna mock them. Hence this post.

As Wendy Seltzer from the Chilling Effects projectsaid, "Sounds like a pretty solid fair use case to me. If criticism diminishes its effectiveness, that's different from the market substitution copyright protects against. And I've rarely seen a thinner DMCA form-letter."

So, to Ralph Lauren, GreenbergTraurig, and PRL Holdings, Inc: sue and be damned. Copyright law doesn't give you the right to threaten your critics for pointing out the problems with your offerings. You should know better. And every time you threaten to sue us over stuff like this, we will:

a) Reproduce the original criticism, making damned sure that all our readers get a good, long look at it, and;

b) Publish your spurious legal threat along with copious mockery, so that it becomes highly ranked in search engines where other people you threaten can find it and take heart; and

c) Offer nourishing soup and sandwiches to your models.

stelmach government to crackdown on greenpeace

Alberta Vows to Crackdown on Greenpeace Protesters

by Richard Warnica And Darcy Henton

A fuming Premier Ed Stelmach has vowed to punish Greenpeace activists to the full extent of the law after protesters invaded their third Alberta oilsands site in as many weeks on Saturday.The group, an international team of activists, scaled three smoke stacks and one crane at the Shell Scotford upgrader near Fort Saskatchewan, just northeast of Edmonton -- part of a continuing bid

Greenpeace activists show their banner during a protest Thursday at an oilsands site in northern Alberta. (Photograph by: Handout, Canwest News Service)

by the group to grab headlines ahead of global climate talks in Copenhagen in December.
"Most of these protesters are from outside the country of Canada. They are really tourists telling us how we should develop our resources," Stelmach told reporters at an event at the West Edmonton Mall.
"It's upsetting because it is putting people at risk. It is creating a fair amount of disruption which is going to cost consumers money in the end. More importantly, the efforts are really aimed at harming our economy, putting Albertans out of work, putting Canadians out of work and really diminishing our quality of life," said Stelmach.
He said he will be working with the companies involved to ensure the protesters are removed and arrested "and we don't put up with this kind of behaviour again."
Stelmach lamented that the protests are getting headlines around the world, but his government is having a difficult time getting out its message that it is working to reduce the environmental footprint of the oilsands.
"We've done so much in terms of advancing technology and it's always a struggle getting the news out," he said. "Behaviour like this will get attention, obviously, and they use social media to get the wrong message (out)."
Using recreational climbing gear and hand-held locks, the eco-activists occupied platforms, blocked ladders and unfurled anti-oilsands banners.
RCMP arrested three of the group just after 5 a. m., but another 16 remained locked in the sky-high towers into the evening.
The occupation came days after another group from Greenpeace chained themselves to four conveyor belts at a Suncor oilsands site north of Fort McMurray and weeks after a third team temporarily stopped production at Shell's Muskeg River mine.
Like the other two, Saturday's event was managed for maximum media impact. By 8 a. m., reporters were being directed to a website with streaming video and high-resolution photos from the protest. Outside the plant, meanwhile, a team of Greenpeace spokesmen were available to journalists throughout the day.
"We're here to raise awareness about the climate crime that is the tarsands," said Melina Laboucan-Massimo. "At this site they're expanding an upgrader, which is going to create more greenhouse gas emissions for Canada."
Shell Canada's manager of media relations, Phil Vircoe, said production at the plant was not affected by the occupation as construction had stopped for the weekend.
Vircoe said Shell has tried to reach out to Greenpeace and offered to talk, but it has refused.
Christopher Daley, an Australian, was atop one of the stacks. Reached by cellphone, he said the team's international makeup was no accident.
"Very, very few people outside of Canada were aware of the tarsands before Greenpeace began protesting them," he said. By bringing in a group from France, Germany, Brazil and Australia, he said they hope to create anti-oilsands sentiment in those countries ahead of the Copenhagen talks.

the joint intelligence group are harrassing anti olympic protesters

Police Question Friend of Olympics Critic Chris Shaw
Nursing student surprised at school by intelligence officers. Councillor calls it 'harassment'.
By Geoff Dembicki, Today, TheTyee.ca

Chris Shaw, UBC neuroscientist and author of 'Five Ring Circus'. Photo by The Blackbird.


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International criticism for 2010 Olympic security
Olympic security costs concealed for 18 months
BC reveals $900 million Olympic security cost, deal with Ottawa


Anti-Olympics critic Chris Shaw thinks Games security forces have him targeted. A recent incident suggests he may be right.

Last week, two intelligence officers waited for a 24-year-old Langara College student outside her classroom. She doesn't belong to a protest group. In fact, she knows very little about the Games. But she's friends with Shaw. And she said that's the only reason two plainclothes constables she'd never met called her by name, waited while she wrote a quiz and then rang her cellphone the next day.

That meeting is only the latest in a long line of police visits to anti-Games critics and the people that know them. Shaw says security forces have crossed a boundary. One Vancouver city councillor calls it harassment.

Police with big smiles

On Wednesday Sept. 30, Danika Surm received a strange greeting as she hurried to her biology class. Someone said "Hi Danika" in a very friendly tone. Surm appraised the man and woman standing before her in the hallway. They didn't really look like students. They were dressed too well, she said.

The woman introduced herself as constable Heidi Hoffman. Her partner, constable Jordan McLellan, had a big smile on his face. "Heidi said she needed to talk to me. I was just on my way to a quiz for biology. I told her it wasn't a good time. She was very insistent about when would there be a good time," Surm said.


Surm told the constables she had mid-terms to worry about and that this time of year is really busy. She left to write her quiz. When she finished the test, about ten minutes later, Hoffman and McLellan were waiting. A little resigned, Surm agreed to speak with the constables in an empty classroom.

"They said 'we know you're very good friends with Chris Shaw and we'd just like to ask you to tell us anything you know about him and his activities and associations," Surm said. The constables told her they were very concerned about Olympics security. That it was important they all work together to make the Winter Games as safe as possible. Hoffman played the tough cop while McLellan stayed warm and friendly, Surm said.

The talk didn't last very long. The young student didn't have much to tell them. They concluded the meeting with a request for Surm's cell phone number. She refused, and they left. The next day, Surm missed a call while in class. The message in her voice mail was from Hoffman, telling her to please call back. "It was a nice formality of asking me for my number," Surm said. "But they already had it."

Shaw's own encounter with police

Chris Shaw is, without a doubt, the most outspoken and well-recognized critic of the 2010 Olympics. He's written extensively about negative impacts of the Games, including a piece five years ago published on The Tyee. He's friends with leading activists in the Olympics Resistance Network. His name pops up almost weekly in 2010 media reports.

On June 2, 2009, Shaw was approached by two plainclothes police officers outside Tony's Coffee Shop on West Broadway. The officers asked him for a private meeting to talk about his opposition to the Olympics. He refused. Any talks about security and Games protest should be held in a public forum, he said, with media cameras and tape recorders rolling.

Ten days later, delegates at Play the Game, an international sport conference in England, condemned all such security force visits. The Coventry Declaration urged governments in Canada, B.C. and Vancouver, along with Games organizers and security foreces, to defend against any attack on freedom of speech. Vancouver city council endorsed the spirit of the document last July. But councillors voted to remove sections that could have been construed as criticism of Games security.

Anti-Olympics protestors say police have approached dozens of people opposed to the Games at their work and homes. The RCMP-led Vancouver 2010 Integrated Security Unit (ISU), a $900 million behemoth funded with provincial and federal money, argues such visits are a legitimate tactic. Police need to know all they can about potential threats to the Games.

'They've crossed a boundary': Shaw

Even though Shaw knows he's on the radar of security forces, he was shocked that officers would visit his student friend at her school. Surm isn't even an activist. She's studying to become a nurse. Almost all her knowledge of the Olympics comes from him.

But even more alarming for Shaw is how officers managed to track his friend down. Where did they access her class schedule? How did they recognize her appearance? Why did they ask for her cell phone number when they already had it? "I'm getting the impression that security forces are extremely paranoid," he said. "They've crossed a boundary here. They are pushing pretty hard into Charter territory."

A spokesperson for Langara College said the school maintains a stringent policy on student information. Not even a close family member can access a student's file.

"The college policy about release of information is very clear," Ian Humphreys said. "We do not release information to anybody regardless of which agency they are ... I doubt I can give you information as to how the RCMP might have received any information about one of our students."

Both Hoffman and McLellan belong to the Joint Intelligence Group, an agency working with the Integrated Security Unit. Spokesperson Mandy Edwards confirmed their visit with Surm last Wednesday. But she was vague when asked how they'd identified the student and known to wait outside her classroom.

'A form of harassment': Councilor Cadman

"I can't answer that on respect of the investigators," Edwards said. "It's possible information led them to that location." The purpose of such visits is to gather intelligence about potential security threats. Somehow Surm's name came up, so officers wanted to talk to her, Edwards explained.

How about Shaw? Is he being targeted by security forces? "We're just looking at any potential plans that are in place to disrupt the games," Edwards said. She added: "Chris Shaw is probably the most vocal anti-Olympics person out there."

And what about allegations that security officers paid a recent visit to Shaw's ex-wife Sylvie Peltier in White Rock? "I know our officers are looking to speak to anyone who may have information so I can't confirm that that happened," she said. "I can say it's possible."

Coalition of Progressive Electors councillor David Cadman heard about the meeting with Surm last week. She phoned him right after it happened, asking what could be done. Cadman admitted that council doesn't have very much jurisdiction over the ISU. But he's concerned such meetings set a bad precedent.

"I'm beginning to see this kind of police intervention as a form of harassment," he said. "There's so many bigger threats out there for this Olympics. To be approaching a student mainly because of her association with Chris Shaw is not helpful."

Stephen Harper sings Beatles song with Yo Yo Ma

ummm??? i thought only elites went to arts events?

here's hoping greenpeace keeps the pressure on the tarsands

16 Greenpeace activists arrested near Shell site
Last Updated: Sunday, October 4, 2009 | 12:21 PM MT Comments77Recommend35
CBC News
Greenpeace activists suspended banners in an attempt to bring attention to the 'climate crimes of the tarsands.' (Greenpeace)
Sixteen Greenpeace activists were arrested early Sunday after spending 24 hours chained high up on smokestacks and a construction crane at a Shell Canada upgrader expansion site northeast of Edmonton.

The occupation started early Saturday when 19 activists stormed the under-construction upgrader in Fort Saskatchwan, which upgrades heavy oil into a lighter synthetic oil that can be refined into gasoline and other products.

Protesters from Canada, France, Brazil and Australia unfurled banners reading "Climate Crime" and "Climate SOS" to draw attention to an industry they say is dramatically increasing greenhouse gases.

The protest is the latest attempt by Greenpeace to shed light on the "climate crimes of the tarsands" in advance of the United Nations Climate Summit in Denmark in December.

Greenpeace said Sunday afternoon the 16 arrested remained in police custody. Charges may include break and enter, trespass and mischief, the group said.

Mike Hudema, a Greenpeace climate and energy campaigner, brushed off criticism from Premier Ed Stelmach that the protesters, who've launched three such protests in the last month, are being "coddled" while breaking the law.

Action highlights 'climate crimes'

On Sept. 16, Greenpeace activists chained themselves to two massive oilsands trucks in Shell's Albian Sands mine, north of Fort McMurray.

On Sept. 30, about 20 protesters were arrested after blocking work at Suncor Energy's open-pit mine in northern Alberta.

"This was another successful action to highlight the climate crimes of the tarsands," Hudema said.

"The addiction to oil that is fuelling tarsands development is leading to climate chaos. Already, hundreds of thousands of people are dying every year because of climate change. We have sent a message to world leaders that it is time to stop the destructive energy path of the tarsands and develop a clean energy future."

Shell Canada spokesperson Phil Vircoe said the site's operations were not interrupted because construction workers are only on the job Monday to Friday.

"Greenpeace has been targeting the entire oil and gas industry here, and they've been taking unsafe and outrageous actions to breach security at various sites over the last few weeks," Vircoe said.

Shell officials have said a safety review is being done to determine how the activists gained access to the site.

The Yes Men Fix The World (2009) official trailer

the true story of pat tillman

A Soldier Martyr, Faked and True
Krakauer's latest lays bare the lies around NFL star Pat Tillman's death in Afghanistan.
By Sara Seltzer, Today, AlterNet.org

Tillman: Considered Bush a 'cowboy.'


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Afghanistan Transforms Canada
To play junior partner to empire, we've militarized our identity.
The Real Costs of the War in Afghanistan
Fallen soldier thought Afghan mission 'useless': family


Where Men Win Glory: The Odyssey of Pat Tillman
Jon Krakauer
Random House (2009)
Journalist Jon Krakauer is obsessed with people who make unfathomable choices, from a young man wandering in the wilderness in Into the Wild to climbers attempting Everest in Into Thin Air to polygamists hearing a call to violence in Under the Banner of Heaven. The subject of Krakauer's new book, Where Men Win Glory: The Odyssey of Pat Tillman, is one of these. As we all know, Pat Tillman left the NFL in 2002 to enlist in the army, inspired to do his part in the service of a president he distrusted and later, a war he doubted. When Tillman was killed by friendly fire, the army and government engaged in a cover-up to turn him into a martyred hero. In this book, Krakauer exposes each step of the deception with persistent detail.

If Where Men Win Glory is less immediately gripping, less fluid and tense, than Krakauer's previous books, this is partly because the story he's telling is known, and painful. But the theme of our government's failure colliding with a young man's sense of duty has a relevance and moral immediacy that's hard to shake off.

Ultimately, Where Men Win Glory leaves you, as does Into the Wild, with a sense of futility and anger over the death of a young man that you knew was coming all along. While Krakauer levels his most scathing insults at the Bush administration and portrays the army chain of command as a bureaucratic, cover-your-ass nightmare, in this book the fog of war is the real culprit. As Krakauer told the Wall Street Journal, "There is nothing glamorous or romantic about war. It's mostly about random pointless death and misery. And that's what [Tillman's] death tells us. It reminds me that the good aren't rewarded, there's no such thing as karma."

Fatal decisions from behind desks

War, Krakauer writes, creates a climate that leads panicked men to gun down their brothers in cold blood at a staggeringly high rate in all recorded conflicts, and a climate that obscures mistakes and misdeeds (as is the case not just with friendly fire, but with crimes like sexual assault and the death of LaVena Johnson. It's a climate that leads commanders to make decisions from behind desks (as happened on the day Tillman died) that those on the ground deem unsafe but are powerless to disobey.

Krakauer begins with an account of that day. It begins with Tillman's lieutenant, David Uthlaut, begging his superiors not to split up his unit or have them travel in the daytime -- both huge risks -- but being denied both requests in order to conform to a pre-ordained timetable. Timetables, Krakauer notes disdainfully, were a particular obsession of Donald Rumsfields', enabling him to check off boxes on his war on terror.


After the first chapter, Where Men Win Glory backtracks, alternating the story of Tillman's early life and NFL career with the history of Afghanistan and the conflicts it has endured, creating a sense of dread as readers know what will happen when the two threads converge. Tillman's personality, enigmatic though it was, becomes clearer here: a young man who struggled to channel his existential angst and occasional aggression into constant self-improvement, who was never content being comfortable and continually pushed himself, running marathons and triathlons in the football off-season, taking death-defying cliff-dives, reading and discussing philosophy over drinks, and writing diary entries after bad football games exhorting himself to do better.

Tillman's diaries revealed doubts

Consumed with notions of honor, risk and service, this larger-than-life man was also a family rock and a devoted husband to his young wife, Marie, the bright-burning center of an extremely close-knit group of friends and relatives. Even the picture of Tillman on the book's back jacket -- long haired, intense with a slightly mischievous look in his eyes -- is worth a look, so different is it from the military portrait of Tillman used by the press.

At the same time as he illuminates this character, Krakauer sets the political stage for Tillman's death and its cover-up, describing the brutal Soviet occupation of Afghanistan, the role of the CIA and the mujahideen, the forming and re-forming alliances that led to the Taliban giving Osama Bin Laden safe haven. On our side, he mentions the disastrous Florida recount, getting in a jab at Scalia and Bush v. Gore, urgent memos about Bin Laden ignored by the Bush administration, and the "selling" and spinning of the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. Many readers will be aware of this history, but juxtaposing it with a life that will be ended by its trajectory creates a fresh sense of urgency and disbelief.

Perhaps the most incredible aspect of the book is its extensive excerpting from Tillman's diaries, granted to Krakauer by his widow Marie, and stories about his time deployed overseas, where he read The Odyssey and "Self-Reliance," and was shocked by the youth and immaturity of his co-enlistees. Tillman expresses his doubt about the Iraq War from its onset: "It may be very soon that Nub [his brother Kevin] & I will be called upon to take part in something I see no clear purpose for... I believe we have little or no justification other than our imperial whim," he wrote. On another occasion, he calls Bush a "cowboy." His other entries are eerily wise: Of Jessica Lynch, whose staged rescue he and his brother provided support for on their first tour of duty, he wrote, "As awful as I feel for the fear she must face, and admire the courage I'm sure she is showing, I do believe this to be a big Public Relations stunt..." He had faced an essential truth about the Lynch incident that it would take months for the American media to sort out. Of his brother Kevin in Iraq, he said "If anything happens to Kevin, and my fears of our intent in this country prove true, I will never forgive the world." Of course, the inverse ended up being true, with Kevin the surviving, disillusioned sibling. On his own account, Tillman confided in a friend his fear that if he were killed the army would parade him in the streets.

This ended up being the most prescient of all. After being sent to Afghanistan, Tillman was shot in the head by a machine-gunner from his own unit, which had been split up to make time. His shooter thought he was the enemy and his unit sprayed bullets wildly across the slope where Tillman was perched (one of his comrades recalls him yelling I'm "Pat fucking Tillman!" shortly before his death). His uniform and most tragically his notebook, where Krakauer tells us he'd scribbled thoughts on gender in Afghanistan, were put into a trash bag and burned, a blatant violation of protocol.

A cruel cover-up

And that was only the beginning of the secrecy. Even the book's less enthusiastic critics agree that with the evidence Krakauer's amassed and compiled, there's no way to deny the most horrible aspects of the cover-up, including orders to Tillman's comrades telling them to lie to his family at the funeral and another official cruelly explaining away the family's pursuit of the truth as a folly attributable to their atheism. Krakauer demonstrates that the willful deception went all the way up to the White House, when an e-mail from an army official exhorted President Bush not to mention the manner of Tillman's death, lest it prove "embarrassing" should the incident prove to be friendly fire (something the official already knew). This deceit, Krakauer notes, led one Tillman friend to leave the army and another to go AWOL, losing their faith in the institution they'd signed up for.

It may remain puzzling that someone with the streak of wisdom that Tillman clearly possessed chose to chance death anyway, even after a painful family intervention begging him not to enlist. But Krakauer gets it, as a kindred spirit who followed in Tillman's footsteps, like he has done for all his risk-taking subjects. (Tillman in turn was a fan of Krakauer's work, which is why Marie gave him access to the diaries). No win, either way Krakauer spent months embedded with the army in Afghanistan, resulting in an epilogue that paints a grim picture of our current situation there. Until Pakistan stops harboring insurgents, "it will be impossible for the United States and its allies to defeat al-Qaeda and the Taliban by military force," he writes. He adds that pulling out is an equally "no-win" prospect.

Krakauer is a good person to have on your side. He doggedly pursues the bigger picture, and weaves human stories and investigations together in such a way as to create the kind of gripping, stay-up all night narratives of which most novelists can only dream. Some critics in traditional print media miss Krakauer's straight adventure tales and find his political and skeptical muckraking less than convincing. But like Tillman, Krakauer's an iconoclast, distrustful of authorities or false ideals, and thus the perfect person to tell this story.

The Capitalistic system will collapse Marc Faber

this guy seems like he knows what he talks about. all i hear from others are we can just keep going on forever living on borrowed money. that idea has always seemed pretty stupid to me!

concerned christians canada takes on ganesh at the zoo!!

Christian group condemns zoo's elephant sculpture
Last Updated: Thursday, September 24, 2009 | 7:03 PM MT Comments176Recommend69
CBC News
This three-metre tall statue of a dancing elephant was donated to the Calgary Zoo for the opening of its Elephant Crossing exhibit in 2006. (Courtesy Lotus Sculpture)
A Christian group is calling for the removal of an elephant statue, modeled after a Hindu god, from the Calgary Zoo calling it "selective religious partiality."

A three metre-tall tall statue of a dancing elephant was donated to the zoo for the opening of its Elephant Crossing exhibit in 2006.

It was commissioned to look like Ganesh, a Hindu god worshipped as a remover of obstacles. But Laurie Herron, a Calgary Zoo spokeswoman, said all religious symbolism on the statue was omitted before it was allowed to be displayed.

Jim Blake, national chairman of Concerned Christians Canada, sent a letter to the zoo on Thursday, calling for the sculpture to be removed.

"The zoo is not a place of religious indoctrination, it is supposed to be a safe family environment free of religious icons and selective religious partiality," Blake wrote.

"The displaying of different gods in a public place like this is an offence to our beliefs and does not represent the diversity of views that should be reflected."

If the zoo wants to keep the statue and "[embark] on teaching the public about world religions, Blake suggested that the facility also erect the cross of Jesus Christ, the Ten Commandments and Noah's Ark

"The display of foreign gods is offensive and does not reflect the views of the majority of Canadians," he continued.

Reached by CBC News late on Thursday, Herron told CBC News she and the zoo's board of directors had not yet seen Blake's letter.

But she said the statue, given to the zoo by a private donor, was intended to reflect the cultural symbol of elephants, and not any religious icon.

harper tries to sneak through american style prisons

Tory plans for U.S.-style prisons slammed in report
Last Updated: Thursday, September 24, 2009 | 7:58 AM ET Comments2Recommend13
CBC News
The Conservative government plans to bring in an American-style prison system that will cost billions of taxpayer dollars and do little to improve public safety, according to a report to be released Thursday in Ottawa.

The 235-page report, A Flawed Compass, is a scathing review of the government's plan, which it calls "immoral, unethical and illegal."

University of British Columbia law professor Michael Jackson and Graham Stewart, who recently retired after decades as head of the John Howard Society of Canada, prepared the report.

A panel led by Rob Sampson, a former corrections minister in Ontario's Mike Harris government, drafted the government plan, which is being implemented by the Correctional Service.

In addition to constructing super prisons and implementing work programs, the program will eliminate gradual release and deny inmates rights that are now entrenched in the constitution.

By stressing punishment rather than rehabilitation, the plan ignores lessons of the past, which led to the prison riots and killings that dominated Canadian news in the early 1970s, said Jackson.

"My greatest fear is with this road map's agenda and its underlying philosophy, we will enter a new period of turmoil and violence in Canadian prisons," he said.

"I do fear that prisons will become more abusive, prisoners will become more frustrated and that we could go back to a time not only when the rule of law was absent but a culture of violence is the dominant way in which prisoners express their frustrations."

The plan attempts to emulate the American "get tough" system, which incarcerated hundreds of thousands of people and has left some states on the verge of bankruptcy, said Stewart.

He called the plan "an ideological rant. All their recommendations are just that they believe in something.… There's no evidence for anything they recommend, there's no research, no background."

The federal road map flies in the face of the Correctional Service's own research of what works to rehabilitate prisoners and ensure community safety, said Stewart.

"The fact is that you cannot hurt a person and make them into a good citizen at the same time."

The government has already allocated hundreds of millions to the plan, even though it has had no input from either Parliament or the public, according to the report.

the sun is setting earlier and earlier

Girl Talk- Feed The Animals "Play Your Part (Pt. 1)"

i LOVE this!!!!!!!!!! the best new thing ever!!!! well since mos def...

Origin Into Schools

scary evangelical propaganda

Origin Into Schools

aaagggghhhhhh....evangelicals!!! anti darwin rhetoric...whoa!

good evening.....

sigh.......

morning..........

conservative government priorities....and it isn't you and me!

Government spends more promoting stimulus plan than flu awareness
Last Updated: Sunday, September 20, 2009 | 10:33 PM ET Comments0Recommend28
The Canadian Press
 
The Conservative government is spending more than five times as many taxpayer dollars on promoting its economic plan than it is on raising public awareness about the swine flu pandemic.

That is again raising a long-standing question: when does government advertising cross the line into partisan boosterism?

Television viewers may have noticed the latest feel-good government ads about stimulus spending, including the Conservative-friendly, anti-election pitch: "We can't stop now," and "We have to stay on track."

All the ads direct viewers to a Tory-blue government website that includes more than 40 different photos of Prime Minister Stephen Harper and refers repeatedly to "the Harper government" — apparently in direct contravention of Treasury Board communications policy.

The TV spots are just the latest $5-million salvo in a $34-million media blitz trumpeting the Conservatives' recession-fighting budget.

Meanwhile, public health officials are fretting over an onrushing fall flu season, the spread of the H1N1 virus and widespread public apathy about the need for vaccination.

Government officials didn't respond to a specific query from The Canadian Press last week on whether television ads were in the works to combat swine flu.

But a government spokesman said Sunday evening that television ads are to be launched Monday across the country to raise public awareness about H1N1.

The official said the government had planned for some time to launch the ad campaign.

The Public Health Agency of Canada said it has a total marketing budget of $6.5 million to inform Canadians about the H1N1 virus and how to avoid infection.

Some $4.5 million of that was spent on ads in newspapers, public transit, and on the web that ran from April to August.

The health agency has committed another $2 million to radio spots that began airing last week, just as new swine flu outbreaks were being reported.

Opposition MPs said the spending disparity in the two ad campaigns simply highlights the obvious: The government is using public funds to toot its own horn.

"Guys, you're spending all this money to promote yourselves. Maybe some work on the prevention of H1N1 would be helpful," Liberal critic Martha Hall-Findlay said in an interview.

The Liberals first objected to government ads earlier this summer that claimed the federal stimulus funding was "80 per cent already implemented." That glossy campaign is also highlighted on the government's action plan website.

Marketing experts say partisanship in government advertising is highly situational, ever-present and may or may not cross ethical lines.

Unenforceable guidelines

Federal advertising guidelines speak vaguely of not promoting any political party or entity, but Hall-Findlay concedes the rules are so loose as to be unenforceable.

Ontario, by contrast, began screening provincial government ads in 2004 under a strict law that attempts to stop partisan messaging.

Jonathan Rose, a political communications expert at Queen's University in Kingston, Ont., advises the ad clearance group for the auditor general of Ontario.

Rose said the Ontario law requires examination of not just what the ads say, "but also the relationship between the ad buy and the campaign imperatives."

That means ads that fall close to a scheduled election — or, say, when a minority government's defeat appears imminent — will be given particular scrutiny.

"One might expect ads that require citizens to do something — such as things to prevent swine flu — have a stronger reason than those ads that have no information related to changing behaviour or attitudes in the public interest," Rose said in an email.

A case can be made for current government ads that promote the popular home renovation tax credit, which requires Canadians to keep receipts and actively apply for tax reimbursement.

But it's harder to understand the public service utility spending millions of tax dollars to advise Canadians that their money is being spent on infrastructure projects.

Tim Dewhirst, an associate professor at Guelph University's marketing and consumer studies department, said government ads may be informational, persuasive, or serve as reminders — with ads that focus on providing specific information to the public the least problematic.

Dewhirst said many of the Tory economic action ads appear to be aimed at persuading rather than informing.

"There's probably a lot of other issues that people would say is money better spent than trying to be persuasive about an action plan that's supposedly already 80 per cent implemented," he said in an interview.

"If it's 80 per cent done, is there much of an informing purpose still necessary?"

The $34-million economic ad budget is spread among four federal departments — Canada Revenue Agency, Finance, Human Resources and Skills Development, and Infrastructure Canada. But all inquiries were directed to the Privy Council Office, the bureaucratic arm of the Prime Minister's Office.

Late Sunday evening, five days after receiving a written list of questions from The Canadian Press, the Privy Council Office responded by email.

"The Actionplan.gc.ca website was developed to help the Government of Canada meet its commitment to providing timely, transparent and accountable information to Canadians on EAP projects and initiatives happening in their communities," said the email from spokeswoman Myriam Massabki.

As for all those photos of Harper, "The Prime Minister is the chief spokesperson in the Government of Canada for the [action plan]," Massabki wrote.

i can't think of anything other than photography. i love fall!

i love rainy days!