A major weapon gone from Harper Cons' arsenal?

[ConsRcons]

Harper and his tools have long relied on attack ads to injure their
opponents. It worked well for them in demolishing Paul Martin, Bob Rae,
Stephane Dion and Michael Ignatieff. But it seems voters don't care for
their attack ads anymore.

Now Harper and his tools are going to have to rely on messing with the
election process more than ever: misdirecting tax dollars to buying
ridings; enlisting more robocalling companies - from the Canada AND the
U.S.; and planting conservative-friendly workers in voting stations at
election day. . . .

Remembering, of course, that Harper and his tools have now cut funding
to Elections Canada again.
______________________________________________

May 23, 2013 - The Globe and Mail


Anti-Trudeau ads made viewers more likely to vote Liberal: poll


New poll from Forum Research suggests viewers of both pro-Trudeau and
anti-Trudeau ads were slightly more inclined to vote Liberal

Canadians who say Conservative attack ads against Liberal Leader Justin
Trudeau increase their desire to vote Liberal more than double those who
say the ads inspire them to vote for the Conservatives, a new poll suggests.

One half of the randomly selected Canadian adults who took part in a
Forum Research poll earlier this month said they had seen the television
ad in which Mr. Trudeau is filmed while taking off his shirt at a
fundraiser and a voiceover says "he's in over his head."

A little more than a third said they had seen another ad that the
Liberals put out in response in which Mr. Trudeau sits on a schoolroom
desk and says "together we will build a better country."

Just under a half of those polled had seen the anti-Trudeau ad, and half
of those said it will make them more likely to vote Liberal. That
compares with the 19 per cent who said it makes them more likely to vote
Conservative.

Even among Conservative supporters, one in 10 who had seen the ad said
it makes them more likely to vote Liberal.

On the other hand, half of respondents who had seen the pro-Trudeau ad
said it made them more likely to vote Liberal while 20 per cent said it
will prompt them to vote Conservative and 15 per cent said it will push
them towards the NDP.

Respondents were not given the option to say their views were unchanged.

The interactive voice response telephone survey of 1,779 Canadians was
conducted on May 21 and 22, as the scandal in the Senate was unfolding.
It is expected to accurately reflect the views of the population at
large within 2 percentage points 19 times in 20.

Most people instinctively say they dislike negative advertising. And an
aversion to an ad does not necessarily translate to the ballot box.

That's because the ads work on both the conscious and sub-conscious
levels and are intended to create doubts about their target over the
long term.

But Lorne Bozinoff, the president of Forum Research, said these ads seem
to have been less effective than their predecessors – possibly
because Canadians know that previous Liberal leaders were taken down the
same way and were expecting this round of advertising against Mr. Trudeau.

"People kind of knew what the playbook was," said Dr. Bozinoff. "I don't
know if advertising can work when everyone looks at the playbook."

In addition, he said, the same poll suggested that the Liberals would
have won a majority if an election had been held this week. Of those
surveyed, 44 per cent said they supported the Liberals, 27 per cent said
they supported the Conservatives and 20 per cent said they supported the
New Democrats.

If they had any effect, the ads "seemed to have moved New Democrats into
the Liberal column. That is the last thing the Tories want," said Dr.
Bozinoff. "They want to split the opposition. they don't want the
opposition to coalesce."