With YouTube enabling an everyman and his dog approach to election advertising, there’s been an embarrassment of riches. The risk, of course, is that nothing gets heard above the din.

So which ads have cut through the cacophany for the right or wrong reasons? The media blackout kicks in tonight, and Crikey has the party by party breakdown below (for all the ads, click through to the Crikey website). 

More generally, highlights have included John Howard and Kevin Rudd’s YouTube tit for tat, Wayne Swan’s grocery tips and the return of Ted Horton who dropped the bass still further for a new bout of fear. In a rare show of unity, Labor, the Greens and the Dems joined as one to Save the Senate (and Hate Howard).

Thanks meanwhile must go to Hugh Atkin’s YouTubing fun for keeping things interesting. He wasn’t involved in the advertising side of things but if the parties are smart, one of them will pick him up for viral campaigning in the future.

 

Coalition.

The Coalition has had enormous fun threatening viewers with the Union bosses —  they are to Election ’07 what the L plates were to Election ’04. And with fear’s fine track record, who wouldn’t want to fall back on it? There were plenty of variations on the theme — almost too many to choose between — as well as the expected attacks on Labor’s economic management. Our favourite is this ad questioning Julia Gillard’s involvement in the waterfront dispute, simply because it features Julia Gillard lurking behind trees, looking shifty (and a lot like Edna Mode from The Incredibles ). Genius.

Labor.

Labor attempted to subvert the Coalition’s black & white doom campaigns, playing away from the negatives with “The difference between John Howard and Kevin Rudd”. We especially like the illuminate to colour touch at the end, a very Wizard of Oz tactic that effectively presents the sunny possibilities of “new leadership”. In a Crikey scoop, we can reveal the ad’s buzzer is a real hit with the under 5 crowd – toddlers love the sound effects and run from wherever they are to watch and copy it. Is this a subliminal “working families” push? The ALP obviously thought they were onto a good thing – you couldn’t turn on a TV without seeing it.

The Dems.

Dems wanted to Bring back Balance, Lyn Allison showing just what could happen to your caffe latte if you don’t vote for them. A fear campaign if ever there was one.

The Greens.

The Greens’ “Double Value Voting’ features two Bob Browns (is this a pro-cloning pitch?) and a pretty convincing argument for voting Greens in the Senate. Also includes the line “that’s my two bobs’ worth.” 

Family First.

A vote for FF is a vote for families and BBQs. There’s nothing extreme about that.

Outside of the parties, the best offering was from GetUp, with this ad slyly poking fun at the major parties’ attempts to terrify us into voting for them. Speaks for itself really.