It’s the early days of an Ontario provincial election and the three political parties are on the campaign trail.
This post could’ve been about Conservatives not having a portrait of its leader. Many of its candidates also don’t have headshots. No portrait = invisible.
This post could’ve been about the NDP which cut-and-pasted its candidate headshots onto a high-school-blue background. The party couldn’t figure out how to organize consistent portraits.
[Edit May 13: The NDP’s first attempt at cut-and-pasting was so bad that it did the cut-and-pasting all over again.]
Instead, I’m going to write about the Ontario NDP recycling its policy book from three years ago and the NDP’s love of being cheap. And yes, I’m going to recycle a blog post :-)
The NDP is either cheap or lazy because it’s reusing its policy book from the previous election. This booklet says the election is October 6 (2011). They couldn’t be bothered to change the date to this election, June 12, 2014. Maybe NDP policies are also out-of-date?
More Cheap Stock Photos
No one pictured in this NDP policy book appears to live in Ontario except for the party leader, some trees, and a flag. This booklet is filled with stock photos.
• The woman and two children live in the US. I doubt they care about what’s happening in Ontario.
• Grandfather and young boy appear to be in the UK.
• Female “construction worker” is in the US.
• The medical devices seem to be in the Philippines.
• The hospital sign is from a US hospital.
• Doctor and male patient are in the US.
• The two girls in the swimming pool are in the US.
• The Canadian flag was shot by a tourist to Canada.
• Photo of the Ontario flag was shot by a local photographer!
• The picture of a doctor examining a baby was shot in British Columbia.
The Ontario NDP is saying one thing, yet its actions are the exact opposite. The party talks about “creating and protecting jobs”, that it will “grow our economy”, that it supports “Buy Ontario to build Ontario’s economy” and it “will help small businesses.” But then it completely ignores Ontario photographers and buys cheap photography from a US stock photo company.
Cheap stock pictures don’t work. They’re not effective. They don’t communicate a unique message. They’re boring to look at.
When a company or political party chooses to buy the cheapest, lowest common denominator, meaningless photography, it shows that they have nothing but disregard for the public.
Imagine what would have happened if the NDP had put its money where its mouth is. It could have hired Ontario photographers to take pictures of Ontario people in Ontario locations. This would have produced authentic, meaningful Ontario stories.
It’s dark and we’re wearing sunglasses
The NDP is reusing a three-year-old policy plan that failed to get them elected last time.
The Liberal Party’s platform policy is missing in action.
Conservatives don’t have a platform yet.
[Edit May 13: The Conservative plan was unveiled and, like the NDP plan, it makes use of cheap stock pictures of anonymous people.]
The election is in five weeks and no party seems to have an up-to-date working plan.
It’s dark and we’re wearing sunglasses. . . . Hit it.
Added August 2024: The federal Conservative Party released a campaign video titled “Canada. Our Home.” But viewers quickly realized that it was filled with stock video clips from other countries.
Again, imagine if the Conservative Party had lived up to its promise of creating jobs. Imagine if they hired Canadian filmmakers and editors to produce an authentic video.
Political parties and businesses are always burned by their use of stock photos and stock video. Why do they continue to make fools of themselves?
