Angry in the Great White North

Elizabeth Thompson of the Montreal Gazette has an amusing observation about Conservative Party advertising spending:

Just how many commercials is the Conservative Party running on Canadian airwaves this week, taking advantage of the fact that the official Election Spending Meter only starts clicking once Prime Minister Stephen Harper takes that long walk across the street to the Governor General's house to ask her to dissolve Parliament.

A few minutes ago, I walked into our family room to pry my 9-year-old daughter away from the television set for bedtime only to find her watching a Conservative pre-election ad on YTV during the SpongeBob SquarePants show. "What did the ad say," I asked. "Oh, that Stephen Harper is a good leader and he is on the right path," my 9-year-old replied matter of factly.

Too bad for Stephen Harper that she and many of SpongeBob's other underage fans are several years away from actually being able to vote for him.

There are many sorts of "hyphenated" Canadians.  Indo-Canadians, Japanese-Canadians, Polish-Canadians, and so on.

I expect that someday we'll be talking about Gyno-Canadians instead of women.

But there is also a group known as "SpongeBob-Canadians".  These are men and women, usually between the ages of 30 and 40, married or in committed relationships, middle-class, with young children.

They are concerned with bread-and-butter issues.  How do you afford food, school supplies, sports equipment, clothes and shoes, and so on, in a world of $1.20 gas?

What do SpongeBob-Canadians do for entertainment?  With young kids, the choices are constrained.  One reality is that television is often under the control of the kids.

In my house, the wail is loud and sustained when dad tries to put on one of his "people" shows like Mike Duffy Live.

Sorry, Mike, but there's no winning that fight.  The kids jealously guard their TV time, and there is no room for compromise.

As it is, one their favourite shows is SpongeBob SquarePants.  And like any good dad, I watch TV with the kids.  My oldest and I will often dissect interesting plot elements or comedic twists, or take a moment to talk about the art and science of animation (traditional cel and CGI, both of which are used in the show), or do a bit of online research on real sponges and plankton and such.

With a spread of four years in the ages of my kids, I'll be watching the antics of SpongeBob, Patrick, Squidward, Plankton, and all the rest for a long, long time.

I've seen every episode twice, at least, and probably on average four or five times.  Worse yet -- and this is a difficult admission to make -- when I find myself with control of the TV and searching for something to watch, I have on occasion selected SpongeBob SquarePants from the PVR even though there were no kids in the room!

Yeah, it has a way of growing on you.

One of my favourite episodes is the one where Mr Krabs keeps The Krusty Krab open all night, and Squidward frightens SpongeBob with the story of the Hash-Slinging Slasher, but then it looks like it's real...well, I won't spoil it for you.  But the ending is funny.

Anyway....back to the point.

The point is that I'm not the only SpongeBob-Canadian.  There are thousands upon thousands of us, spread across the country, squished on couches with our kids, watching the latest episode from Bikini Bottom.  I know, because the parents I meet at the bus stop or at school functions or at the free swim at the community pool all admit to being SpongeBob-Canadians.

And now all of us SpongeBob-Canadians have seen the Conservative Party ad.  Instead of simply filtering out yet another commercial, we had to take a moment out to explain to our kids what the ad was about, and who Stephen Harper is, and how an election decides the government, and what we expect governments to do for us.

It gets us voting-age SpongeBob-Canadians thinking about the choice that will likely soon be upon us, and what choice is best for our families.

Not every SpongeBob-Canadian will decide Stephen Harper and the Conservatives is the best choice, but I bet a fair number will.  And if the Conservatives bought time on YTV to air that commercial in front of SpongeBob-Canadians, I'm willing to bet they have research that tells them that the message will resonate well with that audience.

That's brilliant advertising.