Election marketing taking a few strange turns

By Misty Harris
Canwest News Service

A Las Vegas tourism website is launching a new campaign on October 1 featuring bumper stickers that say: `Vegas: Because you need to be drunk to make it through this election.' Businesses on both sides of the border are using the elections as marketing tools. (Handout/CNS-BRAND-POLITICS)

Public urination, burgers and booze are among the unlikely elements in new marketing efforts that piggyback on election fever on both sides of the border.     

MTV Canada launched a bizarre series of TV spots last week that show people peeing on things, with the tagline: "There are other ways to mark your territory. On Oct. 14, vote."     

Starting Wednesday, tourism website Vegas.com will debut Crapshoot 08, an online initiative offering trip discounts, faux U.S. campaign videos and bumper stickers featuring the slogan: "Vegas: Because you need to be drunk to make it through this election."     

And, in British Columbia, restaurant Burger Heaven is asking patrons to vote with their stomachs in a "bun-official" burger poll that includes such fare as an Elizabeth May Green party burger - which, as you might expect, comes with plenty of greens and extra mayo.

"It's been very good for business," says Chris Geib, manager of the New Westminster eatery. "Our regular clientele comes in regardless, but we do have new customers that come in after they've heard spots on the radio, on TV or in newsprint."     

As of Monday, the Jack Layton burger - featuring "lean to the left beef" and "sharp Jack cheese" - led the pack at 206 votes, followed by patties named after Stephen Harper (133), May (41), Stephane Dion (30) and Gilles Duceppe (6). America leads the way in wacky election advertising     

Vegas.com is among the more creative companies of the bunch, with promotional materials that compare election-time "half truths and naked lies" to the fact Sin City is "good with naked," along with the observation that "in Las Vegas, our `polls' tend to have half-dressed women hanging from them."      Visitors to the site are asked to enter the name of their preferred presidential candidate.     

"Now Canadians get a chance to vote in the American election," quips Vegas.com spokesman Bryan Allison.     

Other initiatives include a Burger King campaign that turns its "Have it your way" slogan into an election mantra (haveityourway08.com), a national "cookie poll" by members of the Retail Bakers Association of America, and a U.S. taco joint that charts the similarities between candidate preference and a person's favourite Mexican food (tastebudpolitics.com).   

Shorter election campaign means less creative advertising     

Although quirky Canadian efforts are harder to come by, an expert on political communication and advertising says that doesn't mean we're any less patriotic.     

"The much shorter duration and unpredictable timing of (Canadian) elections, coupled with the much less glamorous status of our politicians as celebrities, makes them comparatively less attractive - and available - as symbols for advertisers," says Shane Gunster, an assistant professor at Simon Fraser University.     

"I (also) think it has much more to do with the extraordinary promotional resources that are poured into American campaigns and the desire of some advertisers to literally freeload off the media spectacle that U.S. elections have, in part, become."     

Lucas Marco, a political science student at the University of Victoria, wouldn't have it any other way.     

"As Canadians, maybe we don't get as involved but when we do, are we in fact getting more done and debating what's actually relevant? I actually believe this," says Marco.     

"I'd rather watch CBC's At Issue Panel once a week than listen to the constant barrage of (U.S.) pundits and so-called political experts, as well as Burger King ads, on a nightly basis."