The election posters for this year have been more miss than hit. The Libertarianz have created a minor stir with “Legalise Smack”, but the award has gone to the Greens for their simple Vote for Us campaign. It’s been so popular that it’s drawn out the parodies – some good, some bad.
Parody is a very important art form. It should not be dismissed quickly. Obviously, care must be taken, but it’s an effective way to draw comparisons and criticise an argument. I’ve seen a couple good parodies and one really bad one. Starting at the top:
- Libertarianz: Vote for You/Yourself1
This is as simple as it gets and effective as it can be.
- Act: Re-writing the script
The ad is a direct replica of the Vote for Us television ad, with the script changed. The Greens are upset about this, citing copyright. The original ad has been pulled from YouTube, even though the girl’s image was evidently replaced.
While I can see the rationale for the copyright claim, I also see the value of the parody. I don’t agree with the position that Act stands for, but the comparison is effective. After modifying the image, it should have remained, in my opinion, and the message could be criticised for the points it makes.
- Private Facebook: Kill cats to make green voters pay for their actions
I couldn’t find a huge amount about this, but a summary is available. Regardless of being a joke or not, this was pretty nasty. It’s been pulled from Facebook, rightly so. I agree with one of the commenters – if you think that a joke like that is funny, I don’t want to know you. If it was a real political sentiment, God help us all.
1 I saw this while on the bus and I can’t remember the exact wording.
