Government ads: what better way to spend our tax dollars?

Bad Ideas – October 7th, 2007 by Sarah

Unless you have been living under a rock of late, I’m sure you’ve noticed the absolute onslaught of government ads that have been bombarding our tv screens over the last little while. As if ad breaks weren’t mind-numbingly boring enough, lately we have had to put up with government propaganda overload as well as the usual brainwashing tactics from multiple corporate conglomerates (yes McDonalds, I’m talking about YOU! That latest ad campaign with the song about bacon has sent my housemates on a Bacon and Egg McMuffin frenzy! Good luck helping to combat childhood obesity with catchy jingles like that. Your pasta Happy Meals barely stand a chance.).

Amusingly enough, the Industrial Relations specific ads seem to be particularly frequent during Sunday night’s Australian Idol. What is the purpose of this I wonder? To catch a large proportion of the public in such a happy, sing-songy mood that they will begin to associate ridiculous government policy with the good times, and consequently, vote Liberal? Or maybe the idea is to get to the kids, particularly kids aged between eleven and fourteen. Yes…how ingenious. Aim all this nonsense at the workforce of the future. Convince them that limiting their rights will actually be a good thing while they’re still young enough to respect their elders and are only just beginning to create some sort of sense of identity, that’s when they’re most pliable. Unethical? No! It’s just good sense.

While on the subject of Idol, I wonder how much it costs the Federal Government to run so many ads during prime time? I wonder how many other Australian citizens are somewhat irked by the fact that their hard-earned tax dollars are being used in abundance to promote ideals they don’t support? To state the bleeding obvious, surely all this money could be allocated to much more useful and necessary things. Hospitals perhaps? It would be nice to go back to a time when ‘Emergency Unit’ wasn’t a euphemism for ‘waiting around for hours and perhaps ending up in a worse physical condition than you were in when you first arrived’.

But I guess winning the election is more important than making sure the country doesn’t collapse in shambles, right? At least we can be thankful that we have Idol to distract us.

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