BRITISH CAMPAIGN ADS....I was looking for a bit of fun to clear my mind of filbusters and bend points and judicial tyranny this evening, and Andrew Sullivan delivered! This site contains three British campaign ads, and you really, really ought to spend a few minutes and watch them. To someone born and bred on 30-second American attack ads, they're mesmerizing. My summary:

Labour: Sure, we kind of suck. Totally understandable you feel that way. But Christ, just look at the Conservatives. If you vote for them, they'll make you wish you'd never been born.

Conservatives: Britain has become a hellhole. A hellhole with oddly soothing music to go along with it, but a hellhole nonetheless. However, if you vote for us things might become a bit less hellish.

Liberal Democrats: Oh face it: both Labour and the Conservatives are a bunch of twits. Might as well give us a try, don't you think?

The weird thing is that mesmerizing though they might be, I don't think any of these ads would actually persuade me to vote in any particular direction. Labour's pitch is almost a parody, the Tory ad made me want to hide in the closet and never come out, and the Lib Dem ad was funny but pointless.

Anyway, give them a look. They're well worth a few minutes of your time.

UPDATE: My bad (and Sullivan's). Via FreddieMercury in comments, these aren't real ads. They were created by Lee Ford and Dan Brooks:

[Channel 4] gave us a completely open brief to do whatever we wanted. Basically, we set about creating the kind of broadcasts the three main parties would like to make if there were no regulations and they didn't have to be politically correct. The aim is leave the viewer thinking, 'O my God, did they actually make that?'

Still funny and worth watching, but not what I originally thought they were. Ford and Brooks successfully suckered me.

—Kevin Drum 1:09 AM Permalink | Trackbacks