‘Too little, too late’: Yes ad blitz failed to cut through No message
By the time the Yes campaign kicked off its final, multimillion-dollar advertising blitz, it was too late – opponents of a Voice to parliament had been running consistent, targeted messages in key states for more than eight months.
Political strategy and advertising experts say that although it appeared Yes groups far outspent the No camp, the No side’s clear message and repetition was key to its resounding win in Saturday’s referendum.
“Convincing people to engender change takes a lot of work and effort, and you can’t leave it to the last minute,” said Andrea Carson, a professor of political communication at La Trobe University. She has been regularly reviewing how much each side was spending through the campaign.
“While Yes did consolidate that message in the last weeks, that was coming too little, too late.”
John Farnham allowed his classic rock anthem You’re the Voice to be used for the Yes campaign.
The Yes campaign had the backing of corporate Australia: the likes of BHP, Rio Tinto, Wesfarmers, ANZ, Qantas and Visy Industries executive chairman Anthony Pratt publicly disclosed more than $26 million in combined donations.
On the other side, billionaire Clive Palmer said he would spend $2 million promoting the No vote, and ran a series of large newspaper ads in the final weeks. Adam Giles, the boss of Gina Rinehart’s Hancock Agriculture, made it clear he felt companies should stay out of the debate (Ms Rinehart did, however, attend the No campaign event on Saturday night).
An image of Jacinta Nampijinpa Price used on Facebook as part of the No campaign.
Conservative lobby group Advance created Fair Australia in February, and immediately started spending thousands of dollars for the No vote on social media. Its ads,
Read more on afr.com
