Random Access

When oxymorons die and go to heaven, what do they read?
Truth in government advertising.
All joking aside, one of the most irritating things about living in this country and this province is watching government advertising twist, garble, obfuscate and distort the facts to the advantage of whatever party happens to be governing in an obvious attempt to improve its chances of re-election. It doesn’t help to know that we are watching our tax dollars at work, massaging and spinning the facts.
As an election approaches, the themes of government ads take on a striking resemblance to the themes that the governing party will stress during the pending election campaign.
Earlier this year, the Advertising Standards Canada (ASC) launched a series of public service announcements that feature a half-dozen Canadians holding up signs that say in large capital letters TRUTH. The group fosters community confidence in advertising and acts as a watchdog and complaints bureau for those who betray that confidence.
The catch line below the public service announcement stated, “Fact is, truth is an essential part of any successful ad campaign. Smart advertisers have known this for years. That’s why the advertising industry created the Canadian Code of Advertising Standards.
“For more than 40 years, the Code has set the standards for acceptable advertising in Canada. It helps ensure that the ads you see and hear are truthful, fair and accurate. Check it out for yourself. Because the more you know about advertising, the more you get out of it.”
Perhaps ASC should consider adding an asterisk to its statement, with a note that goes something like this: “* not applicable to any advertising by political parties or governments.”
Case in point – the latest judgement by ASC that finds that Ontario’s Liberal government published misleading newsprint and TV ads in September and October that gave the false impression that people can get faster access to health care service just by visiting a new web site or calling a government hotline. The ads raised expectations that could not be delivered and, “made inaccurate claims and omitted relevant information,” stated the ruling.
This comes just a couple of weeks after the Ontario Auditor-General Jim McCarter concluded that information listed on the government web site itself was misleading because it was incomplete (information from 33 hospitals was missing) and inaccurate. The information should be taken with a “grain of salt” said the Auditor-General because it combined wait-times for patients already in hospital, who obviously get faster service, and those outside, who have to wait much longer.
Government advertising should be taken with a mine of salt in my experience. In Opposition, parties rail against the government for bribing us with our own money. Inevitably, when they get elected, they all do exactly the same thing.
The McGuinty Liberals even passed a law that supposedly prevented this sort of partisanship from happening. This week’s ASC ruling proves that didn’t work.
Since reducing wait times is obviously a key plank in the Liberals’ re-election plans for next October, we can look forward to hearing and seeing new, more carefully-nuanced embellishments on the subject in the coming months.
(The preceding was not a paid political advertisement).