Written By: - Date published: 4:33 pm, November 27th, 2007 - 124 comments
Categories: election funding, john key -
Tags: election funding, john key
Just in case you don’t know, today is John Key’s first anniversary as National Party leader and his backers have given him the gift that keeps on giving & well over $50,000 worth of boring propaganda. Others including our good mates at blogblog have done the analysis of the spin behind this one so I thought we’d employ the oldest of journo tricks and follow the money. That’s why I had a talk to a few of my mates in the film industry and guess what? Film ain’t cheap. I’ve had a bit to do at the amateur end of the scale but today I’ve had a crash course in just how rich you have to be to make this sort of thing.
We sat down and identified this as at least two weeks of shooting across at least four locations: Christchurch, Wellington, Porirua and Auckland. We’ve all seen Key’s crew in the Porirua market video. It’s at least a seven person crew. That’s an assistant, two cameras, a soundperson, a director and a couple of stills photographers. For each of these factor in $2000 a week plus expenses (maybe $500 for the assistant) and remember we’re talking expensive expenses & each of these people is being flown around the country being fed and put up in hotels.
Then there’s the cost of gear. The first camera (there are some shoots with three) is probably a digibeta & that’s at least $500 a day and by the time you factor in all the other gear we’re looking at $1000-$2000 a day in gear. And remember there’s probably up to ten days of shoot here. That’s up to $40k on gear and staff alone.
Then there’s the cost of editing. A suite with an editor will run to hundreds of dollars an hour and there’s a good three day edit here. Add to that the cost of a sound mix at $3000(ish) and authoring it to DVD (at least another $2000) and the numbers are starting to add up. And that’s not counting the scripting cost & though I get the feeling our taxes paid that one because I’m sure Key will have a publicly funded communications adviser who can script a shoot.
What really blew my mates away though is the use of Coldplay & the truth is none of us knew what that would cost because it’s just out of the league of anyone we know. But here’s a little story. I went to dinner with a record label owner the other night & nothing special, just a struggling indy label with a few good acts. But here’s the kicker & he’d been approached by an ad company wanting to use one of his songs for an ad campaign in the UK. Their offer for the UK rights for a year? Forty thousand pounds. And that’s for an unknown band. Now, when you use a band’s music on the Internet you need the world rights and when that band’s Coldplay? Man, I can’t even guess what that would cost.
So this is the deal & at least $50,000 just to get the thing made and then who knows how much for the right to play “Clocks”. By the looks of it they’ve shelled out for a MediaOne video advertising campaign on the Herald to promote it too.
Now that’s a lot of money by anyone’s standards and given the fact that it’s a tedious bloody thing (and even the most sycophantic Tory adviser could see that) the question is why? No, scratch that, actually the real question is “Why???” Well I’ve kicked this around and all I can figure is that it’s the old story of them trying to get their spend in early. After all that’s a big chunk of cash they’re spending this year so they have a resource for next year that will be outside of any EFB campaign period.
Amazing, all that cash just so he can sell himself as an ordinary bloke. Happy Anniversary John.
UPDATE: For those arguing our figures are inflated because Key may have relied on volunteers, think again. Looks like he’s engaged the services of Production Shed TV, an outfit that boasts “over 40 years of combined industry experience, along with solid connections to many major industry players.”
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Matthew Pilott
I think Gruela got the point.
Yes the comparison (then vs now) was ridiculous, I’ll give you that.
In the 70′s Plunket was an institution that provided almost unlimited assistance to people with young families, all but killed off now. Children walked to school so each family needed one less 4×4. The costs of raising young children in the 70′s was a 1/10 the cost of today. No PSP’s, iPod’s, kiddies fashion, overseas holidays, new cars or big screen TV’s.
Gruela is 100% correct, the Labour party of today has lost it’s roots. I was once a hard core Labour supporter, raised in a low socioeconomic hard core Labour supporter family in state housing. I don’t see the Labour party values anywhere in the current political spectrum, and I’m not so partisan I just envisage all my ideological boxes ticked because of the party name. If we are going to have self serving bastards running the country, at least let it be ones that don’t pretend to be something they are not.
I think you’ve missed the point of what burt was saying, Matthew. Obviously what he meant was that the minimum wage should immediately be raised by 20%, and to pay for it, the top tax rate should be raised to 45%.
Isn’t that right, burt?
“The cost of bringing up a child these days is anywhere from 500k up to a mil; out of which hat do you get your ideas?”
Simple, if you can’t afford them, don’t have them.
**sorry if this has been double posted already
I should of written ‘for moderation’ after ‘holding all comments’. Obviously the National Party cannot handle the peoples views on the borefest that they spent thousands of dollars on.
What burt said.
ps visit my thing and hurl vitriol at me..http://troubleingodzone.blogspot.com/
**sorry if this has been double posted already
***It wasn’t. Back to what you were doing.
“Obviously the National Party cannot handle the peoples views on the borefest that they spent thousands of dollars on.”
Hmmm, this ‘borefest’ has occupied you lefties all afternoon…and evening. Methinks she protests too much.
I wouldn’t call it Labour roots or ideology to encourage large welfare-dependant families, if that’s what you’re meaning.
I’m not happy with reports that the rich-poor gap is gettin worse if that is also what you’re alluding to, that’s one trend that I doubt any government could buck. However if you can see nothing for workers and whatever you consider Labour’s ‘roots’ in today’s Labour then I suggest you’re not looking very hard, or trying even harder to ignore what is going on. But from what you’ve said, I can’t decipher what it is you’d be after…
Lee, those are some very negative and vindictive comments there, can I suggest you keep that type of stuff to yourself given you’re so concerned by the ‘vibe’ over here? Bit contradictory don’t you think?
Constructively Lee, if you’ve got it in you, I would love to hear why it is you think this blog would not pay any attention to the leader of an opposition party that many detest?
Did anyone hear the radio today, when it was announced that Key has enough support form the minor parties to form a government after the next election?
Can you furnish us with more info
which minor parties perhaps
Lee c
Sorry you feel that way. I shall attempt to raise my game. (I blame the gin.)
Gruela
No it’s not that simple.
WFF should be capped at the same level the “rich bastard” threshold kicks in. Not twice the threshold, it’s just vote buying crap.
The minimum wage increases should be indexed to the same percentage as the average of all MP’s each year. That would solve a lot of moral credibility issues over protecting the interests of the lowest paid people.
Taxes… flatter, tax free bottom end, rich bastard threshold that is actually scooping the rich. Currently the rich bastard threshold scoops as many people as employed in the greater public service!
Well gruela, I have home-made rum and coke to blame for my less than shining efforts, so we should call it evens
burt
I’m not sure of capping WFF at the highest tax threshold. At the moment, all it’s doing is taking money from childless ‘rich b******s’ and redistributing it towards those with kids. Considering NZ’s ageing demographics I don’t see it as necessarily a bad thing that some incentives are applied to having more children.
I like the idea of indexing the minimum wage to MP pay increases, though. But the minimum wage would still be coming from too low a base. Maybe it would work better if we capped MP’s pay for a few years, first.
But, come on, flatter tax?! I don’t want to live in the U.S. I want to live in a community, where those with more help out those with less. Maybe those in the top tax bracket can do without that wide screen TV for the bedroom, just for now, while there’s kids in South Auckland skipping school cause there aren’t enough truant officers, do you think?
Burt – “The costs of raising young children in the 70′s was a 1/10 the cost of today. No PSP’s, iPod’s, kiddies fashion, overseas holidays, new cars or big screen TV’s.”
I’m not disagreeing with you completely, but it is still possible to raise children without these things. We’re all going to have to get over “consumerism” one day, because the earth will not sustain it…
“I was once a hard core Labour supporter, raised in a low socioeconomic hard core Labour supporter family in state housing.”
Interesting Burt. It makes your current knee jerk Labour hatred even more mysterious to me.
“If we are going to have self serving bastards running the country, at least let it be ones that don’t pretend to be something they are not”
Cut off our nose to spite our face? No thanks. Labour is far from perfect, but far better than the alternative.
“I don’t see the Labour party values anywhere in the current political spectrum”.
If you could just get past all the tory rhetoric and look at the actual record Burt. Unemployment is at record lows, the minimum wage has increased hugely, household incomes have increased, fewer are on benefits, crime rates are down, industrial action is down, the economy is strong and growing, the environment is taken seriously, there are many initiatives to support families, we are making provision for future retirements, the list goes on and on. Labour values in action Burt, if only you could see them…
Doesn’t it concern you that he has to spend $50,000 plus just to make people think he’s an ordinary bloke? And doesn’t it strike you as an odd way to squander all that money?
Not as bad as spending govt coin to airbrush an old trout into a young trout.
For all our derision of the video it has been very popular. It has over 1500 views on Youtube today, which is very high by any standards. Also it is number 16 on NZ’s most watched videos for the day. On the other hand only having 5 responses is somewhat suspicious, have the Nats been rejecting many comments that are ridiculing the video?
“Not as bad as spending govt coin to airbrush an old trout into a young trout.”
So none of Brash’s images were airbrushed at all to make him look less younger, and like he had a decent mop of hair.
I don’t have too much of a problem with this anyway, most photos of celebrities and personalities you see are heavily airbrushed, It seems natural that politicians would do the same thing.
DPF seems to have been strangely quiet on this great relaunch of Key.
Considering him being a National mouthpiece you would think he would have a nice posting about how great Key is and how much of an ordinary bloke he his. Or does he realise that all the great right wing thinkers that inhabit his site can see that the video is ridiculous and the video will be attacked from all sides?
“For all our derision of the video it has been very popular. It has over 1500 views on Youtube today”
It is possible to be notorious without being popular.
“which is very high by any standards.”
Not by the standards of the 6 O’Clock news!
“have the Nats been rejecting many comments that are ridiculing the video?”
Yes, but no one knows how many of course.
By the by, it sounds like you guys are going to get pretty busy tomorrow. From what I heard on the late news Granny Herald is going to have a nasty poll result for Labour on it’s front page. Get ready for some serious gloating.
John Key came from a beficiary upbringing and became wealthy.
No wonder you people hate him.
This obsession you have is only serving to highlight this success of a man.
Why do you despise him so much. It is the politics of envy at its very worst. He should be an example for everyone.
And why the obsession with National spending their OWN money on this. It is alot better then them spending say $800,000.00 of our taxpayers money on it.
I think JK got his present today.
RL – All I was doing was pointing out how much this effort cost in order to show how National campaigns. This is another example of how they are trying to substitute PR spend for policy. That kind of shallow politics is not a sign of a vital and robust democracy and that’s not good for anyone. It’s that simple.
Pilott:
you guys are so paranoid you can’t even accept good advice withiout assuming it isan attack.
I’m simply sugesting that if the other blog were to run article after article targeting Helen Clark, you guys would be the first to point out out biased and slanted it is.
Also I’m suuggesting that the fixation with Key is either because he is a threat, or, because there is an obsession with him.
Simply to attack him as you are doing using ridicule and persoanl slights is doing nothing to address the actual issues that confront New Zealand.
In fact he is running a positive campaign. The Labour ‘negative’ attack campaign is actually playing into his hands. It is you guys and and not Key who will end up scaring middle NZ away from Labour.
Key is a monster of Labour’s own making, and you guys seem to enhance his ‘bogey-man’ status daily.
Yesterday, John Key launched a campaign to raise his profile. In the space of one day, this left leaning blog has 4 posts about John Key!
Mission accomplished?
“On the other hand only having 5 responses is somewhat suspicious, have the Nats been rejecting many comments that are ridiculing the video?”
Oh yes, there was some rather lively debate yesterday. I’ve just been back this morning to find they’ve deleted all the comments which exhibit frustration with the clip, with the exception of TaneStandard (probably because they think he will write a blog about it – already has… I think he should write one about the fact that National is blocking and deleting the comments of opposition).
Thank you, the Standard. You are really the typification of the Labour Party online.
Has it ever occurred to you that the reason why John Key, and the National Party, are so popular is because people are sick of being told that they’re no good, that they’re too stupid to make decisions for themselves, that the government knows best, and that anybody who disagrees with the Government is a traitor who should fuck off to Australia?
Has it occurred to you that the surly, arrogant, backward-looking, negative expression about New Zealanders that is expressed by Helen Clark, Michael Cullen, Trevor Mallard, Pete Hodgson, and the folks at the Standard–as opposed to the optimistic, inclusive, forward-looking view of New Zealanders and what they can achieve–as expressed by John Key–is exactly what New Zealanders are ready for?
Has it occurred to you that your constant obsession with him–for no other reason than that people LIKE him–shows just how out of touch with New Zealand voters you are?
You have to be really pretty cynical to practice the politics of envy like that. It’s not working for you. The more Labour attacks John Key, the more voters flock to him.
IP re your points above – I don’t think this has occurred to many who visit here.
I don’t think it is likely to change either.
Perhaps the Labour Party has empowered a certain personality-type who have over they years succeeded in marginalising and drowning out the voice of moderation within Labour, and that is why it will be difficult to communicate anything other than the ‘Party Line’ to them?
Yesterday, John Key launched a campaign to raise his profile. In the space of one day, this left leaning blog has 4 posts about John Key!
Mission accomplished?
Not all publicity is good publicity. When the meme going out there is that Key’s had to spend $50,000 on boring propaganda just to convince us he’s an ordinary bloke, that’s not the kind of profile he was after.
As for your obsession with what we post about Lee, you do have to realise it’s Key’s one year anniversary and he’s just launched a major campaign. Of course we’re going to talk about him. Go back through the last month or so of our posts and you’ll find he’s hardly featured.
Has it occurred to you, IP and Lee, that people such as myself don’t like what he stands for (despite – and therefore because of) the lack of concrete policy from him? It’s only people like you who think that Labour dislikes him because he’s popular, but that’s the insular thinking I have come to expect.
IP, you’d need to be pretty cynical and blinkered (or deeply shallow
)to brand it the politics of envy in the first place, it’s not working for you either (do you have a little handbook of random and broad arguments you pick from? I can’t see anything in your posts that tie them in with the subject most of the time?).
Lee if you read the post there is nothing poersonal about Key in it, would you like some fact with that? When he comes out with some policies, I’ll probably argue against them too, unless I like them. Nothing surprising about that is there? No paranoia in that right? No big monster? So I don’t really know what you’re on about.
Given their political stances on “Fair Trade”, I don’t think Coldplay would appreciate their tune being used to promote a Tory party.
IP – I see you’ve moved from denying blatant facts to arguing using baseless conjecture. Well done, punter. I don’t actually think this is an attack on John Key so much as a pretty straight forward cost-analysis of his video and some speculation on why it has been done. As for the so called “obsession”? Yesterday was the man’s one year anniversary and a major National party PR push – it would be remiss of these guys to ignore that. There’s been very little Key coverage on the standard for a while.
Oh and Prick you can’t really expect people to buy into the idea that National is positive and Labour is negative – you tories have been running attack spin for years now and it’s been fuckin sickeningly divisive. If you chumps can’t take a dose of your own medicine you should never have opened the box. Suck it up bitch.
I hope that NZ election campaigns aren’t going to go all American. By that I mean all this focussing on the ‘personality’ of the leader. Where are the rest of the team? What are their policies? What are their skills and experience?
It shouldn’t be about who has the best smile and most charming manner…
How hollow.
Tane said -
Prophet, this really is desperation. Have a look at the film. The picture above has six people alone.
Well Tane – It appears to me that Sod has asked a couple of his Shortland St production assistant mates a few questions and then pulled a 50k figure out of his arse.
Me, I have 18 years experience in the Film and Television industry and the production values do not have the look of a large crew.(yes, 7 is a large crew for a shoot of this type)
So – If you guys can provide some proof of a seven man crew and a 50k budget then its all good – if not – Sod is talking out his arse.
If Sod’s so connected he should be able to easily provide the information but I think he’s still just pissing out of the tent, which, I must say, is losing a lot of its shine.