May
1997 - Jurassic Parliament
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What's there to say? During the Liberals' first term from 1993 to 1997, Canada continued to wallow in the longest period of sustained high unemployment since the Depression; 200,000 more kids slipped into poverty; cuts to health care, education and welfare continued unabated – the Jean Chrétien legacy. Oh, did we forget to mention NAFTA and the GST?
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THE ACTION: Like Steven Spielberg, GM's team of crack film producers decided that dinosaurs weren't extinct and Canadians needed to be reminded of this fact. First, activists placed 1,000 copies of the Jurassic Parliament poster in the bottom slot of newspaper boxes in Vancouver, Burnaby and New Westminster. Following this initial action, GM put up 2,000 more copies of the poster in Vancouver's Eastside and West End neighbourhoods over a two-week period. Finally, we produced a live-action short – a trailer for the movie "Jurassic Parliament" – only to have it turned down by every television outlet we approached. Not even the locally-produced labour cable-show "Working TV" could broadcast the trailer because it was too political. It was finally shown to the public, post-June 2, as part of Working TV's show, "Election 1997: Stories Too Hot For Ted Rogers."
STRATEGY: We thought that Canadians were tired of hearing the three right-wing parties talk about national unity.
MEDIA: Unfortunately, the media was not tired of talking about national unity. However, many members of the public called our voicemail to say how much they enjoyed our Jurassic creation – even Canada Post's corporate security guys were calling with their take on the posters.
WRAP-UP: For the media, elections are a funny thing. During the great horserace, only those groups outside electoral politics that mimic the media's elite debate-of-the-moment theme are considered newsworthy. Even though jobs and social programs were a top priority for most Canadians, the media pushed unity on the public at the expense of all other issues. What were we thinking. Still, nice poster, huh?