"it's time to eradicate the Celtic Snail" seems to have backfired somewhat for John Bruton, who is now in danger of being eradicated himself as leader of Fine Gael.
The party's £160,000 poster campaign failed to impress consumers although the message was valid, said the deputy managing director of advertising agency QMP D'Arcy.
"From an advertising viewpoint the consumer issue is very valid, but, unfortunately, it was badly executed," Mr Jeremy Crisp said.
The poster was a pun on the Celtic Tiger and puns are always pedestrian and lazy, Mr D'Arcy said.
"There are so many vehicles for politicians to get their message across. Why waste the money on this?" he asked.
Another advertising executive said the problem with using a negative image was "you tend to get lumbered with it. The fact that snail rhymed with Fine Gael was unfortunate and should have been spotted."
The idea was too complicated for a 48-sheet poster, he said. "If you were travelling at 30 or 40 miles an hour there's no possibility you would have remotely understood it."
Mr Jim Donnelly of DDFH&B said: "When you put out an ad for a political party, the other parties are bound to take a smack at it. The issue is whether the message got across."
The campaign, which was put together by the agency DDFH&B, included 100 48sheet posters and 250 six-sheet posters, which were placed nationally.
A spokeswoman for Fine Gael said: "DDFH&B came up with the concept. It was approved by the campaign committee, a marketing committee, the front bench and the political party."