"Vote for me, like a good little fella"

coun3sport

Just wondering if anyone else living in rural Ireland is as offended by Gay Mitchell's patronising and condescending, two tiered presidential poster campaign as I am?
For those of you who haven't seen them, the posters situated in and around the major cities and urban areas picture him sporting a flashy designer suit, with a backdrop of a busy metropolitan street. On the other hand , the posters situated in rural areas of the country picture him wearing an old anorak and tie, with a tractor sratigicaly ploughing in the background!
I find this highly patronising, and an obnoxiously belittling stereotypical blunder on the part of both Gay Mitchell and his campaign team!
As if the citizens of rural Ireland didn't deserve the "high flying" Gay Micchell, they only deserve the "dumbed down" version!
I have news for you Mr. Mitchell............ People from rural Ireland travel outside their parishes, they see the machiavelion condesention stamped all over your campaign, and they Will remember come election day!

HivemindXX

Perhaps he realises the people down the country value substance more than style and they don't care what sort of fancy suit he wears on his posters.

You can spin it either way. It's a dud move and I'm sure he's regretting it now that it's getting attention. No need to go to the victim complex, just accuse him of being a hypocrite.

jonniebgood1

I have'nt seen the posters but I think his confrontational style is growing on me although he does make me cringe at times to with some of his repeated messages. If we wanted someone to fight our corner I think he would be the one to do it. However that is not the presidents role. He has been the only one to express his opinion on MMG for example. We don't know what Higgins thinks of MMG as he was not brave enough to state his personal opinion. So Mitchell has got decent qualities and has a track record of hard work and achievements but he would be better suited to a different role.

Dymo

I'm from a rural area and I don't find the posters offensive, actually I'm glad he notices that there is a difference between rural and urban and someone on his team thought it was a good thing to have 2 type of posters, it shows a bit of thinking outside the box.

I find it more offensive with Mary Davis posters where they are totally photoshoped and are trying to fool the electorate onto portraying an impression which is totally false when we see the real article.

jimi_t2

HivemindXX wrote: »

Perhaps he realises the people down the country value substance more than style and they don't care what sort of fancy suit he wears on his posters.

He's clearly surmising the complete opposite. I think you're confusing sartorial elegance with 'style'. If he's dressing up like one of the healy raes to appeal to the rural electorate then he evidently thinks that style (or lack thereof) is far more important than substance as an attribute in a political candidate.

And you know what? Historically he'd be right on the money.

jonniebgood1

jimi_t2 wrote: »

If he's dressing up like one of the healy raes to appeal to the rural electorate then he evidently thinks that style (or lack thereof) is far more important than substance as an attribute in a political candidate.

And you know what? Historically he'd be right on the money.

You are associating his urban posters with style and his rural get up with lack of style. Thus it is you patronising.

coun3sport

jimi_t2 wrote: »

HivemindXX wrote: »

Perhaps he realises the people down the country value substance more than style and they don't care what sort of fancy suit he wears on his posters.

He's clearly surmising the complete opposite. I think you're confusing sartorial elegance with 'style'. If he's dressing up like one of the healy raes to appeal to the rural electorate then he evidently thinks that style (or lack thereof) is far more important than substance as an attribute in a political candidate.

And you know what? Historically he'd be right on the money.

Exactly! More worryingly perhaps though,is the fact that Gay Mitchell has given us a glimpse into his political past, and/or more importantly, his political future through these posters, insofar as; he has been, or will be, willing to don whatever hat (sometimes literally as we have seen from the posters) suits, depending on which part of the country he is in.
I have yet to be truly won over by any of the candidates, but, as like in previous years, for a person with no political allegiance, it will be a case of " the best of a bad bunch" I fear.
Gay Mitchell though, has certainly lost kudos in my eyes, not only for the ill thought out poster campaign, but more so for the inanely beige political stall he has set out!

MadsL

For those that haven't seen these - here is Mitchell's Dublin campaign...




and his err.. rural campaign....


























Sorry, couldn't resist..here's the real one.

Zubeneschamali

MadsL wrote: »

For those that haven't seen these - here is Mitchell's Dublin campaign...

Looks like a cock in both, to me, with a bit of Anorak Bertie in the second.

I see Ray Darcy highlighted this on his blog, I thought that gobsh!te promised to emigrate when Enda won the election?

prospect

coun3sport wrote: »

As if the citizens of rural Ireland didn't deserve the "high flying" Gay Micchell, they only deserve the "dumbed down" version!

Sounds to me like you have applied the stereotype to yourself.

So he has his city photo taken in a city environment, and his rural area photo taken in a countryside environment. What is the big deal?

The Mulk

We live in Co. Kildare, both of us are from Dublin originally and we got one of each delivered.
I guess they couldn't make up their minds on our demographic.:)

whydoibother?

What bothers me more than the pictures is the difference in messages.

"understands our past, believes in our future"

and

"pride at home, respect abroad"

How these messages were selected is a much more interesting question.

LaBaguette

Interstingly enough, I've seen the "Pride" line on Davis' posters, and the third person past/future thing on Mitchell's posters in D1/3.

Aldebaran

I had to do a double-take when I saw that 'rural' poster during the week, I thought I was seeing things.

I don't know which is worse, that Mitchell believes that urban and rural populations are so radically different that he needs two different campaign posters, or that his idea of appealing to rural voters is to have a poster with a tractor and some random farmer on it. Sure we're all farmers down here, don't ya know?

Although, having said that, I have heard him mention a few times that he is the most popular candidate amongst farmers so I guess that's the image he was going for here.

Sponge Bob

I live rural but the morkeshing department must reckon on us being sophisticates coz they put up the suit posters not the anorak posters.