Has anyone else noticed John Key’s absence from the media in the last few days? I finally clicked to it while listening to RNZ this morning when we heard yet another “a spokesperson for John Key’s office says” comment.
This is a pretty standard technique from the Crosby Textor hand book. I like to call it the “clean man”. You see Brand Key is all about the nice stories and, as the ‘Sod has so verbosely pointed out, it takes its value from association with nice things.
But dirty old Aussie spin doctors are not nice things
and flogging off ACC is not a nice thing
and taking rights from working Kiwis is not a nice thing
and ditching the charter is not a nice thing
and, come to think of it, cutting back people’s retirement savings is not a nice thing either
So what do you do when these not so nice things come up? Well you put up poor old Bill to do the dirty work or when you are really pushed you get a “spokesman” or a minor backbencher to say it for you. And you get as much of it out of the way in as short a time as possible.
The main thing is keeping the clean man (and his brand) clean. The way I see it Vernon Small busted them over ACC and now they are pushing out all of their unpopular policy in one hit in an attempt to make this a bad news blip. It’s like ripping off a bandage. Best done fast.
You’ll note, as many in the media have, that while they are doing this John Key is kept far far away from it. I imagine he’ll be back when the focus is back on Labour. In the meantime have a wee think about what kind of anonymous “spokesperson” could publicly censure a democratically elected MP like Shane Ardern.
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