The massive TV and radio buy is shared among three federal departments for slick ads that began airing Jan. 11 and wrap up by March 31. The ads have been hitting some of Canada's priciest advertising real estate: the Super Bowl, the Oscars, and Hockey Night in Canada.
Human Resources and Social Development Canada has budgeted $14.5 million on three separate advertisements over nine weeks. The Canada Revenue agency is shelling out $6.5 million over 11 weeks, and Finance would only say its $5 million campaign runs during February and March.
All the ads link to the Economic Action Plan website which has drawn the ire of critics across the political spectrum for its partisan tenor.
The current run of television ads is also coming under fire, in particular a Finance department spot that features actors singing the praises of the Harper government's 2009 budget plan.
Uh huh ... so, we're paying how much for "The Harper Government" to tell us the wonders of the "Economic inAction Plan" ... on some of the most expensive advertising real estate in the country? Worse still, they're spending more on this propagand campaign than a major corporation will spend in an entire year of advertising in Canada:
Alan Middleton, marketing professor at York University's Schulich School of Business, called the dollars involved "huge."
"A major advertiser like Procter and Gamble wouldn't spend that within a year in Canada, it's that big," he said.
Annualized to about $100 million for a full year, "not even McDonald's and Tim Hortons spend anywhere near that."
More outstanding fiscal management on the part of "The Harper Government" ...
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