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What’s the future for Brand Key?
Written By: - Date published: 9:21 am, July 2nd, 2008 - 62 comments
Crosby/Textor, an outfit renowned for its anti-democratic, secretive practices, has built the public image of John Key (Brand Key) from the ground up. That’s why Key is seen as ‘nice’ but people, including National supporters, say they don’t know what he stands for and can’t say why he would a good PM. That’s why he […]
Crosby/Textor Spin Bingo
Written By: - Date published: 6:30 pm, July 1st, 2008 - 67 comments
John Key has his round of five interviews tomorrow morning (Breakfast, Sunrise, ZB, KiwiFM, bFM) and will undoubtedly face questions on his use of Crosby/Textor. So, what line will C/T have him parrot repeatedly? He’s already trying “I get most of my advice from the public” (weak) and the more aggressive “I’m going to set […]
Crosby Textor spin the use of Crosby Textor
Written By: - Date published: 1:52 pm, July 1st, 2008 - 33 comments
I wish some journo would ask Key whether Crosby/Textor helped him with lines on how to handle questions about his using them – they must have a standard set they give their clients. Would Key really have thought of this one himself: John Key says the vast bulk of advice he takes is from the […]
Mr Key’s real concerns
Written By: - Date published: 12:49 pm, July 1st, 2008 - 37 comments
While more questions will no doubt be asked about Mr Key’s choice of hiring infamous Aussie spin-stars, Crosby/Textor, (no doubt some more of them will feature here) I thought this point raised by Barry Soper yesterday was a good one: There’s clearly a concern how this information is yet again leaking from the National Party office. I mean, […]
Brand Key shows a contempt for ordinary Kiwis
Written By: - Date published: 6:30 am, July 1st, 2008 - 39 comments
It comes as no surprise that Brand Key has been a Crosby/Textor project from Day 1. The hit and run, the bait and switch, the cake and eat it, the shoot the messenger, the misdirection, the dog-whistle, wedge politics, the outright lie – these are all elements of the classic Crosby Textor strategy that have […]
John does a Don
Written By: - Date published: 2:23 pm, June 30th, 2008 - 76 comments
Remember Noelle McCarthy’s 95bFM interview with Brash in which she got him to admit to knowledge of the Brethren pamphlets? Student radio has done it again. Hager’s weekend article in the Sunday Star Times detailed an ongoing advisory relationship between the National Party and political consultants Crosby Textor. But RDU’s Kate Gorgeous asked John Key back in November 2007, “Have you got […]
Hollow politics at work
Written By: - Date published: 2:14 pm, June 30th, 2008 - 22 comments
Brand Key on Waatea news: “A National government will be a lot more demanding about educational standards, a lot more demanding about under-performance in schools, a lot more demanding on failing schools” There is no ‘how we will fix things’ here, simply a statement of problems. If schools don’t perform would National cut their funding? […]
Nat response to C/T scandal right from C/T playbook
Written By: - Date published: 11:49 am, June 30th, 2008 - 33 comments
There’s a standard formula that Crosby/Textor has its clients use when damaging information comes out. a) refuse to engage. The most senior public response to the revelation that Brand Key has been created by exactly the same people who ran Brash’s divisive, racist campaign in 2005 has come from Key’s chief of staff. No politician […]
The cost of Crosby/Textor
Written By: - Date published: 10:06 am, June 30th, 2008 - 58 comments
So Crosby/Textor has been designing Brand Key from Day 1, isn’t this just what every party does? No, it isn’t – Crosby/Textor uses a particularly undemocratic, nasty form of political marketing (more on that in later posts) and the extent to which National uses Crosby/Textor is simply beyond the financial means of any other party. […]
Misdirection
Written By: - Date published: 11:44 am, June 27th, 2008 - 66 comments
There’s a technique that sits at the heart of conjuring tricks called misdirection the act of drawing attention away from the trick itself. You all know how it works: the conjurer will flourish a brightly coloured handkerchief in one hand, while the trick is quietly taking place unnoticed in the other. The same thing happens […]
Key’s principled stand
Written By: - Date published: 9:27 am, June 27th, 2008 - 46 comments
A good cartoon by Mike Moreu this morning about Key’s confusing stance on the smacking referendum. Though of course, as a_y_b pointed out yesterday, this approach isn’t at all confusing if all you’re trying to do is to win an election by accentuating and exploiting negative perceptions of your opponent.
Protecting ‘brand Key’
Written By: - Date published: 6:54 pm, June 26th, 2008 - 51 comments
For the first second third time, National is trying to shut down the reporting of things they feel don’t cast them in the glowing light they’d prefer. TV3 indicates that National is to make a formal complaint over the reporting of John Key’s ignorant and insulting comments in relation to the ‘peaceful’ settlement of New […]
Same thing?
Written By: - Date published: 2:47 pm, June 26th, 2008 - 42 comments
In an attempt to cover for John Key’s ignorance of New Zealand history, National’s Gerry Brownlee has pulled out a quote from Michael Cullen that he asserts says the same thing as the Key quote. You compare: Key: “We’re not a country that’s come about as a result of civil war or where there’s been […]
Key denies Land Wars
Written By: - Date published: 12:39 pm, June 26th, 2008 - 79 comments
Mr Key on NewstalkZB: “We’re not a country that’s come about as a result of civil war or where there’s been a lot of fighting internally, we’re, we’re a country which peacefully came together”. So, the numerous pre-Treaty battles, the Flagstaff War, the Land Wars, Parihaka. decades or warfare in which many tribes lost their entire territory and […]
No consistency needed
Written By: - Date published: 10:40 am, June 26th, 2008 - 12 comments
Colin Espiner’s just posted an entry headed “National’s position on smacking confusing”. It is – but only if you’re expecting philosophical consistency. Key’s approach isn’t at all confusing if all you’re trying to do is to win an election by accentuating and exploiting negative perceptions of your opponent. For the time being, this is National’s […]
Johnny Key and the magic $500 million
Written By: - Date published: 4:11 pm, June 25th, 2008 - 12 comments
Whenever John Key is asked to explain how he will fund some new spending or his still secret tax cuts, he says ‘we’ll cut waste/rein in spending’ and the only example he ever gives is ‘we’ll cap the core public service at 36,000′. This, he claims, will save ‘$500 million over 3 years’ or $166 […]
Deja vu
Written By: - Date published: 11:11 am, June 24th, 2008 - 15 comments
I was having a look through some old campaign PR yesterday and found this gem: It seems John Key ripped off more than just Coldplay when he made his DVD.
Hollow Men film to premiere next month
Written By: - Date published: 4:57 pm, June 20th, 2008 - 108 comments
The Unionist reports Nicky Hager’s book The Hollow Men has been made into a film and will be screening as part of this year’s New Zealand International Film Festivals. The 98 minute documentary is directed by Alister Barry, whose previous work includes the excellent In a Land of Plenty and Someone Else’s Country, and is […]
The definition of irony
Written By: - Date published: 6:49 am, June 20th, 2008 - 45 comments
When a band who sued after their work was famously plagiarised by a certain leader of the National Party is themselves sued for plagiarism. All it needs now is for National to sue the guy suing Coldplay and they’ll have completed the circle. [Creaky Boards’ song vs Coldplay’s] [John Key DVD soundtrack vs ‘Clocks’]
EFA lets voters know who bankrolls parties
Written By: - Date published: 10:20 am, June 19th, 2008 - 65 comments
National has announced that John Key donated $30,000 to the party this month. That’s all well and good; Helen Clark donates a similar amount to Labour most years. What’s new is that the donations Key and every large donor to National or any other party are now public. Previously, National received up to $2 million a […]
Key promises productivity magic
Written By: - Date published: 6:50 am, June 19th, 2008 - 47 comments
Key reckons he could bring down inflation by targeting ‘low quality’ government spending. How? To counter inflation, you need to increase productivity. Inflation is projected to run at 4.7% this year. The Government makes up a third of the economy. If Key was to bring that down to 2% by increasing Government productivity how much […]
Slippery John’s “after-tax incomes” line
Written By: - Date published: 10:29 am, June 18th, 2008 - 33 comments
You’ll have noticed that Key only ever talks about increasing ‘after-tax incomes’. Even when he’s asked about wages for government employees, like doctors, he responds that National would increase their after-tax incomes with tax cuts, not by increasing their wages. But anybody can see that cutting taxes is only a short-term way to slightly increase […]
Matt McCarten from the Herald on Sunday
Written By: - Date published: 12:23 pm, June 16th, 2008 - 15 comments
Worth a read: Remember when George Bush’s administration promised the world that the invasion of Iraq would be over in a few weeks? We were assured that the Iraqis would throw flowers at their liberators, the war would make a tidy profit and petrol prices would plummet. Next time you fill up your car think […]
Key’s slippery promises on waste
Written By: - Date published: 3:27 pm, June 14th, 2008 - 50 comments
National has staked it all on delivering bigger tax cuts than Labour. To remain credible, they need to deliver $20 a week on average more than Labour. That’s $3 billion a year. The operating surplus is gone, so where will the money come from? John Key has been repeatedly referencing the fact that the government […]
Treating the voters like children
Written By: - Date published: 9:45 am, June 13th, 2008 - 30 comments
Keith Holyoake used to say “tell the people, trust the people”; be honest about the benefits, trade-offs, and costs of policies and trust the people to judge you in an adult manner. Central to Brand Key, however, is playing to voters’ baser desires, especially greed, and fomenting juvenile beliefs, including that it is possible to have ones cake and eat it. For […]
Why Key really wants super-fast broadband
Written By: - Date published: 4:00 pm, June 11th, 2008 - 29 comments
Remember National’s broadband ‘plan’ that reads like it was drawn up on the back of a napkin? Notice how the only gains they can point to from this plan to borrow $1.5 billion are better video conferencing (when was the last time the average worker used video conferencing?) and being able to download pirated movies […]
Anyone for more pork pies?
Written By: - Date published: 5:47 am, June 9th, 2008 - 39 comments
On TV3 last night John Key was continuing to tell outright porkies about how advanced National is with its “policy” development compared with Labour in 1999. Key’s figure of 14 policies is derisory – as John Armstrong wrote in the Herald on Saturday, some of the 14 are assurances of what National would not do, […]
Brand Key
Written By: - Date published: 4:51 pm, June 8th, 2008 - 81 comments
We got this in from the ‘sod and we like it so here’s the guest post we swore we’d never give him (taking the piss out of Ian Wishart didn’t count). ‘Sod, don’t let it go to your head. Brand Key, or the cultural logic of late capitalism in NZ politics Like others I have […]
What’s Behind Key’s Cheesy Grin?
Written By: - Date published: 2:06 pm, June 8th, 2008 - 38 comments
Ever since Labour’s budget was released, John Key has been talking cheese. I’ve been wondering why all his talk of blocks of cheese has been making him smile with such a big big grin. Well, a check of MPs’ financial interests sheds some light. Slippery John is making a bundle from Kiwis buying cheese. He is the third largest shareholder […]
Bubbles and empty spaces
Written By: - Date published: 12:31 pm, June 7th, 2008 - 63 comments
John Key’s policy vacuum is such a joke that even the ad-men are using it for comic material. Have a listen. powered by ODEO lprent: There seems to be a problem At ODEO. Stored local in link below. John Key – Bubbles
Key greets high school students, Vulcans
Written By: - Date published: 4:51 pm, June 6th, 2008 - 11 comments
Before you bag him, give it a go yourself, it’s harder than it looks. It’s a little known fact that Spock took years to perfect the Vulcan salute and sparked more than his fair share of diplomatic interplanetary incidents during that time.
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