For younger readers baffled by their elders’ occasional
references to Dancing Cossacks, this was a three-minute “party political
broadcast”, i.e. an ad, for the National Party in the 1975 election. It even has its own Wikipedia page.
Written by
Michael Wall, then of the Colenso advertising agency, it was credited with National’s massive win. The ad was controversial at the time, essentially for
accusing Labour, led by Bill Rowling, of being a bit, well, you know, socialist, but looking at it again the
most shocking thing about it for me is the lack of an apostrophe in “April Fool’s Day”
in the first few seconds of the animation.
The dancing Cossacks themselves were on screen
for just five seconds, so 2.78% of screentime – from the 1 min 15s mark it is just National
leader Robert Muldoon behind his desk talking directly to the viewer about his policy
on superannuation and why it was better than Labour’s. Leaving aside the
politics, the ad treats the viewer a lot more seriously than today’s election
ads: nearly two minutes of the party leader talking policy, not feels. (Thanks
to Simon Carr aka @simonsketch for the link.)
It would be interesting to see some Labour ads
from that year – from memory they were made by Wall’s friend and fellow Westie Bob
Harvey, then of the McHarmans advertising agency.
2 comments:
You can watch the Cossacks here http://www.ngataonga.org.nz/set/item/93 - no Labour one from that election, but a great 1969 one featuring Norm Kirk here http://www.ngataonga.org.nz/set/item/82
First, thank you for the info, and your perception. I could appreciate this blogging site and especially
this article. At this point, I feel I throw away far too
enough time on the net, reading junk, effectively.
This is a refreshing change from that experience.
However, I think that perusing other people's thoughts is a valuable investiture of at minimum a few of my regular allotment of time in my routine.
It's much like sifting throughout the chaff to find the treasure.
As well as, whatever illustration functions for you.
Still, sitting in front of the laptop is probably as bad for you as smokes and deep-fried potato chips.
Post a Comment