So occasionally, we try to balance things out.  This is tough.  At least with Cóir, we have a crazy extremist religious group to make fun of.  The ‘Ireland for Europe’ campaign is as vacuous and meaning-free as any campaign I have ever seen.  This leaves only one option…

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I freely admit these aren’t as much fun as the Cóir posters.  But it’s done in the interest of balance.

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So, the rounds of makey-uppey posters have started doing the rounds.  I intend to take part fully, and I’m starting with Cóir.

Their posters are, frankly, no less accurate than these.  I hope you’ll enjoy them.

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A lawyer friend of mine with no love for pro-bono work asks me to point out that none of these posters were made by or endorsed by Cóir.  I’m happy to do so.

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So in my previous post, I explained that some organisations were putting up really godawful posters for the Lisbon Treaty.  And I think most people agree that very many of them are pretty substantially awe-inspiring.

I was awfully inspired on a few of them to pull them down and correct their grammar, possibly add a coherent argument, but resisted the temptation.  I, of course, do not have a vote, thanks to the border and my British citizenship.  Suits me.

But just have a look at a few of these dreadful pieces of detritus.  I present, for your viewing pleasure, three from the ‘Ireland For Europe’ war room, one from Labour and one from the left-leaning ‘No to Lisbon’ movement.  I may have given the impression in a previous post that Cóir are the lead agency of opposition to Lisbon, when, of course, that is nonsense.

The lefties are the prime movers on Lisbon, but Cóir/Youth Defence are much more fun to make fun of, and they sue much more liberally (they’ll probably sue me for accusing them of being overly litigious).

Ireland For Europe.

I want to draw your attention to three posters from Ireland For Europe first.

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I want you to consider in what sense the Lisbon Treaty, a document Brian Cowen was unable to read before the first referendum, is simple.  These posters, with their fancy cut-out, their naive design and their utterly disgraceful patronising tone, are actually, if you think about it, bullying.  ”It’s simple.  I want something.  Vote Yes.”  There is no meaningful attempt to connect with the people in these posters, which is almost why they fail.  The real reason they fail, just like the others, is that they have practically nothing to do with the Lisbon Treaty.  Practically nothing at all.

“It’s simple, I want a strong voice in Europe”.    How will voting Yes give you a stronger voice?  Is this a threat?  If we vote no, will our voice become weak?  Almost as weak, perhaps, as the nation’s puny, tiny population deserves?

“It’s simple, we need Europe.”  Okay.  I don’t see much of a move to chuck Ireland out of the EU for doing what the UK deeply wants to do and vote No.

“It’s simple, I’m safer in Europe.”  This bears no relation whatsoever to any fear anybody actually has.  It is ridiculous, and it’s utterly irrelevant to the Lisbon Treaty.  First, Ireland will not be made to leave the EU unless it declares war on another member state.  Second, if there is a European armed forces protocol in the lifetime of the treaty, you won’t be safer.  You’ll be a target, and a combatant nation.  That is, if you want to play your full role and not be ambiguous about your commitment to the project.

Epic fail.

Labour

Second, let’s look at this gem from Labour.

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Only one thing to say about this generally okay poster. Labour is saying Yes.  How large is the work ‘Yes’ on the poster?  Where is the call to action?

Lefties

Next, the only lefty poster I’ve seen so far (maybe I missed a few) is here:

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This is a great poster.  It really captures a basic concept, and it’s straight to the point.  The people who put this together should be pretty happy with this.  VW and other corporate organisations are probably not going to best pleased.

Nutters

Finally in this round up, as usual around All-Ireland Final time, North Dublin gets an infestation of this crap:

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I hate the message, but the poster makers for referendums need to get with the programme on this: if the 32 County Sovereignty Committee can put a fucking call to action on their posters, perhaps your armies of graduates could try something in the future?

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Lisbon Treaty posters are a complete joke this year.  The pro-Lisbon people are essentially trading on their obligations to their old friend Europe, and trading vague ambiguous slogans which often border on the extremely patronising.

The anti-Lisbon side aren’t sure whether they’re anti-Europe as well, but to be on the safe side, they’ve decided that any of the several hundred good reasons to reject the treaty won’t cut it, so they’re reverting to lies. This post will look at some of the posters from two groups, Cóir and ‘We Belong’ critically assessing some of them and then making fun of the rest.  I hope to get high def versions of posters from two other organisations, to which I shall apply the same treatment later. I’ll look at the deeply unpleasant anti-Lisbon posters first, and let you judge for yourself.

Youth Defence Cóir

First, let’s start off with the most prevalent posters I’ve seen.  Step forward, Cóir, who last time pretended they weren’t the unambiguously god-awful  Youth Defence (Warning, not safe for humans)  and now seem to be offering to fight anyone who has a problem with the fact they actually obviously are.  Their posters follow a theme.  The theme is ‘Lies’.

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So, impressed?  Youth Defence members aren’t the sharpest knives in the drawer, but I would have hoped for something a little less bone-shakingly arse than these posters.  Scaremongering ?  Check.  Hyperbole?  Check.  Moronic nationalism pretending not to be racism?  Check.  Well done, Cóir.  Well done on making what should be an easy vote for No into the moral danger of being seen as a support for you.

We Belong

The most surprising thing about the We Belong campaign is its total banality.  They’ve mistaken black and white for edgy, they’ve mistaken the need to have pictures of attractive people on posters for originality, and most disturbingly, they seem to have mistaken vague, abstract statements for actual arguments for the treaty. To top it all off, they’ve mistaken ‘you decide’ for a call to action.

They also seem to have forgotten this is a fucking referendum campaign, and that it’s a good idea to give people a call to action.  Bill Cullen, the star of Ireland’s The Apprentice, is not a boring or banal man.  Why on Earth he approved posters for a referendum without a call to action is entirely beyond me.  I can only assume that there are special surprise panels on all the posters which reveal closer to the time of the referendum that the We Belong campaign actually wants you to do something. It is self evident that the people will decide, so saying ‘you decide’ on a poster is a waste of time, effort and money.

They think they’re being laid-back and intellectually engaging, by presenting the facts and hoping the facts speak for themselves, but they’re wrong.  This is not a marketing campaign for a car.  Bill Cullen should have known better than to be associated with this crap, and I am expecting a much stronger campaign to unfold from We Belong soon.  It’d better, or someone will be not so much fired, but set on fire.

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