Incongruity part 2. "The Box"

How does one link the facade of Stephen Harper with an Italian ice cream advertisement?

Easy. Neither of them represent reality.

Inasmuch as the depiction of two people committing a "sin" against Catholic church policy is no more than an attempt grab your attention for another purpose, the public presentation of Harper is an attempt to shift your focus away from the real person.

Harper is depicted by his supporters and handlers as a confident, thoughtful, tough individual: A guy with some kind of beautiful mind who cuts through the crap with frank talk.

Except that, just like the ice cream ad, it's a purpose created illusion.

Leaders with confidence don't micro-manage. Leaders with confidence don't fill ante-rooms with pictures of themselves.

As the right-wing screech machine went into overdrive at the fact that Barack Obama used a teleprompter, they conveniently "forgot" that the hero who was sitting in the cab of their international train-wreck, at a leaders debate during the 2004 presidential election may have been nothing more than a sock-puppet mouthing the words provided by others to questions directed at him.

Teleprompters are nothing new. Most prominent politicians use them when making a speech in order to actually deliver as close to the copy which has been handed out to the audience. Obama, unlike many past politicians, is willing to wave off the copy in front of him and actually tell you what he's thinking.

Not so, Stephen Harper. Harper needs a teleprompter to "stay on message". Everything he does is scripted. The object is to make sure Harper says nothing and does nothing to reveal the true nature of the beast.

Harper is highly paranoid. Confident, thoughtful and tough? Not so much. When Harper lost the 2004 election he vanished - for months. When he finds himself trapped with a difficult question he demonstrates quite clearly that he cannot think on his feet; rather than outwit his opponents he engages in personal attacks and smears. When caught out in an interview, without scripted answers, he utters outrageous statements you could drive a frigate through. (Lest you haven't figured out that his advice on stock market bargains was more than a little out-to-lunch.)

And now we get the real story of Harper from one who was there when "the message" machine failed, via Dr. Dawg.

Have an ice cream cone and go read.

Incongruity part 1

At the risk of making Terry O'Reilly something of a personal hero, (OK... I think the man is brilliant, but that's beside the point), I see something here that may well be a deliberate attempt to create a controversy.

It's an advertisement for ice cream... but until you get past the picture, a rather metro-sexual depiction of a priest hoisting the bare leg of a woman portraying a nun across his naked abdomen, you probably don't care what product the ad is trying to sell. Your interest is in the picture and its unsubtle incongruities.

Priest, nun, sex.... perhaps shock, but to most of us, humour.

Terry O'Reilly would have a blast with this one, because if this plays out the way I think it's going to, the marketing agency that put it together has just taken this lesson, this one and this one, and pulled together either a horrible mistake or, something I suspect, a brilliant maneouvre to get people to focus on their brand.

What actually attracted my attention was the title of JJ's post. There has already been a complaint about the ad and at least one magazine refuses to run it (controversy building), and we all wait with bated breath to see if that screechy right-wing defender of rapist Catholic priests, Bill Donohue, reacts with his usual outrage at someone mocking the trappings of his sometimes religion (full-time political action "charity").

And, the marketer has caught Donohue, (and all those like him), in a trap.

If Donohue ignores the ad on the basis that the marketer is just trying to draw him in for the benefit of an advertising spectacle, he fails in his mission to defend the sanctity of Catholic church icons and symbols. (Portraying sex between a man of the cloth and a virginal nun? Face to face? Wearing their now askew churchy stuff? Blasphemy! When priests have sex it's done differently!!)

If he reacts with his usual hyperbolic eruption he'll have played right into the hands of the advertiser. Antonio Federici, a name one might associate with the fashion industry, will be spotlighted exactly the way the marketer wanted it to be.

You don't have to take my word for it. You simply have to read what the company itself has to say. (When you get there, click on "News".) Antonio Federici ice cream, recently introduced to Britain needs to get the word out:

It will be supported by what is described as a "guerilla opera" campaign, provocative advertising and sampling activity.

What better way to get the word out than have a bunch of howling religious wingnuts do it for them?

So far, it seems to be working. Ice cream anyone?