}

Thursday, December 03, 2015

Latest Flag Referendum ad


The video above is the latest ad for the first Flag Referendum. It began airing yesterday, and basically tries to encourage people to vote. I think there will be at least one more ad alerting voters to the deadline for returning their ballot.

I share these ads because I think they’re interesting, and because I know people outside New Zealand may be interested in how we do elections. I know I'm interested in election and political advertising form other countries.

In this case, I just hope these ads help motivate voters to take part in the first referendum.

2 comments:

rogerogreen said...

Americans would ridicule this animated character mercilessly, because that's what they do.

Arthur Schenck (AmeriNZ) said...

That's probably true. Such characters are used in advertising because they're seen as friendly and non-threatening, and in this case it's also not representing any particular race or ethnic grouping, which is important in a multi-cultural society like New Zealand.


What foreigners wouldn't know is that "Orange Guy" (as it's often called) is orange because that's the colour of Elections NZ (whose logo is on its chest). That colour isn't used by any political party, and I'm pretty sure it can't be used by any party so as to avoid any confusion with official election information.


Parties are required to register in order to participate in an election (because there are election laws they must obey), and their logos and colours have to be approved by the Electoral Commission (and they aren't always). This is primarily to ensure voters aren't confused when the logos are printed on the ballot.