Many people have already commented positively on Macleans' Special Election Issue and its 24,000-word behind-the-scenes look at the campaigns by Paul Wells et al. (The first few morsels of the story are free online, but to read the whole thing you have to get the print edition.) Having just read it now (our Macleans seems to come in a couple of days after everyone else's!) I'm happy to join in the praise. This is some great reporting. There is so much neat material to chew on, but a few interesting points I picked out which you might find interesting:
- Perry Miele, the advertising guru brought in to do the Conservatives' ads, deliberately put in the "beep beep" car horn noise at the end of the ads specifically so that if you were making a dinner with the TV on you would look up and see the Tory logo;
- No Conservative candidate was allowed to give an interview to the media withouth first calling the central campaign HQ and going through a conference call with party media people to be sure they were on message;
- The Tories spotted Susan Murray's wild-eyed flailing around on Don Newman's show early (noted and discussed on this blog) and deliberately exploited it. Tory spokeswoman Sandra Buckler would not look Murray in the eye, forcing her to lean further and further forward, thus making her look more and more unhinged.
Anyway, I shouldn't give away more -- and I don't want to anger Paul! But if this kind of insider stuff interests you, it's worth picking this issue up on newsstands.
# posted by Adam Daifallah : 9:42 PM
