A paid advertisement for the BC Liberals designed to look like the front page of a newspaper is being dismissed as a desperate attempt to mislead voters.
The ad appeared on the cover of Wednesday’s edition of 24 Hours, and labeled Premier Christy Clark the “comeback kid” for her performance in Monday’s televised leaders’ debate.
It also cited an Ipsos Reid poll that found the Premier “looked and sounded most like a Premier” to more respondents than any other debate participant.
The words “paid advertisement” appear toward the top of the page.
NDP Opposition Leader Adrian Dix laughed off the ad on the campaign trail Wednesday, saying he thinks it’s unwise to try and feed the public an “illusion.”
“An actual poll said that I won the debate,” Dix said. “But the Liberals needed to buy the front page of the newspaper.”
Thirty-five per cent of respondents thought Dix won the debate, according to the same Ipsos poll used by the Liberals, compared to 30 per cent who favoured Clark.
The poll also found Dix had the best ideas and policies of all candidates.
Christy Clark defended the move to reporters, arguing the advertisement is merely another part of the Liberals’ campaign marketing strategy.
“There’s lots of TV ads, there’s lots of advertising that all the parties are doing, and that’s part of the way we all communicate with the public,” Clark said.
The Premier could not say how much the ad cost and deferred the question to the Liberal party.
Pollster Mario Canseco of Angus Reid Public Opinion said he’s never seen anything like the paid front-page ad before, and said running it should present an ethical dilemma for any news organization.
“There are many people who have looked at this and assumed that this is actually real, and that it may actually be the newspaper,” Canseco said.
“Even though it has the words ‘paid advertisement,’ it is designed to be almost like the front page.”
24 Hours has not responded to requests for comment.
