Sir, I am writing to you regarding Fianna Fail's "People Before Politics" poster campaign. I have two criticisms.
Firstly, the slogan "People Before Politics" is designed to imply that, unlike any other political party, Fianna Fail is above the fray of meaningless point scoring and back scratching. The deeper core of this message is that most of politics is corrupt and self serving. Perhaps it can be, but it can be no more self serving than, for instance, an ad campaign that seeks to discredit the political process in order to win an election. I happen to believe that our political institutions succeed more than they fail. For this campaign to suggest that the system is merely and only ever a system to enrich key vested interests, and never a means to organise society fairly, is dishonest and disreputable.
Presumably Fianna Fail has no unique selling proposition in terms of policies. Hence the content free nature of their slogan. And every party would claim to put people before politics. That is a given. So we must decide between policies not worthless platitudes.
Secondly, the poster's imagery was vapidity itself. I'm thinking there of that profile of Mr Ahern gazing into space. Does Fianna Fail think that we will vote for them because Mr Ahern looks good in the studio? Obviously, the point of this picture is to show Mr Ahern as a respectable, wise man worthy of our vote. But whether this is true is obscured by the pose chosen to try to convey this. Anyway, nobody who puts an image of themselves on huge posters nationwide gets my vote.
With this poster, Fianna Fail attempts to prove its unstated message. Namely, that politicians are witless, cynical idiots worth precisely no respect whatsoever. It is a miracle, therefore, that somehow I still think otherwise. Maybe Fianna Fail's next ad campaign will finally change my mind.
Yours. etc.,
Waterloo Lane.
Donnybrook,
Dublin 4.