STATE POLITICS:

The planned rollout by the Crisafulli Queensland Government of a new tourism advertising campaign has enraged the state Labor Opposition and has also been roundly condemned by academic experts in ethical political practices.

The Bug can reveal exclusively that the new multi-million dollar advertising campaign will tout Queensland as a “LOVELY NICE PLACE” to visit (top left, in an early design leaked to us).

But it’s the logo the Crisafulli government has created to spearhead the campaign that has caused an enormous negative reaction from political opponents and highly respected university know-it-alls.

State Opposition Leader Stephen Miles slammed the campaign, saying the graphic looked exactly like the Liberal National Party’s state logo, right down to the blue and yellow colours the LNP adopted two decades ago when the LNP first took control of the Brisbane City Council, at that time just about the only jurisdiction the Liberal and National parties held anywhere in Australia.

But Deputy Premier Jarrod Bleijie immediately laughed off the Opposition’s “dumb concerns” with a short statement: “We as a government do not use the LNP’s intellectual property!”

But a professor in ethical political behaviour at the University of Queensland, who asked not to be named, said: “Even Blind Freddy could see that the ad campaign logo and the LNP organisation’s graphic are basically the same.

“It’s clearly designed to impart the message in Queensland voters’ minds that the LNP and the State Government are one-and-the-same; that the state considers the LNP as the natural party of government in Queensland, and so should voters.

“This is just an extension of the Crisafulli government’s implementation of the recent change to conservative blue in the state’s official logo. In fact, I believe that state emblem will also shortly be changed to use the logo planned for the tourism ad campaign.”

The Bug understands that former LNP Premier Campbell Newman (far right, at top) has been the driving force behind the new ad campaign and mooted changes to the state emblem.”

As a former Lord Mayor of Brisbane, “Can Do” Newman introduced a design for the party’s election material around 2004 that some people might have foolishly mistaken for the Brisbane City Council’s official “cleat”, a pattern of alternate blocks of yellow and blue running down the left-hand-side of promotion/educational material of all sorts.

For years, the inner-city community paper The Independent campaigned against that “cleat cheatery” by the LNP, seeing it was against council rules – as we believe it still is – for their cleat to be used for political purposes. Sadly, countless questions about how the average Brisbane voter could possibly tell the difference were rebuffed time and time again with “We do not use the council’s cleat!”

Spot the difference, anyone? By the way, before she was first elected in Central Ward, Vicki Howard – the dear poor thing – thought her campaign vehicle was a council bus. She also had no problems seeing a clear difference between what she used down the left-hand-side of her footpath posters, leaflets, etc, and the cleat used in official council documents, pamphlets, etc.
And fair enough too. Who would hope to get elected as a local councillor if you showed a total distain for basic rules?

PS: If you’ve ever had any doubts about the prime object of the LNP cleat cheatery – to link the LNP directly to council and imbed in voters’ minds that the LNP was the council’s natural party of choice, some years back, an ABC radio compere declared the best solution to any confusion would be for the city council to stop using the LNP’s design! True story and bless her cotton socks!

Want to be alerted immediately a new blog hits Australia’s longest running and most offensive satire site? Simply click on the Follow sign or the link below to be emailed new yarns the moment they are uploaded! The very second we go far too far – and trust us we will – you can then quickly unfollow via the three dots!

Follow The Bug Online on WordPress.com