Political advertising: the audacity of Ofcom…

Happy Monday, folks… I haven’t been up this early since 2006…

From Ofcom’s webpage main feature:

Yes you can

The recent victory of Barack Obama in the US presidential elections underlines how improved media literacy can play a major role in shaping and changing society.

His election campaign relied heavily on the internet – including sites such as YouTube – to communicate directly with the voters.

But that kind of campaigning can only be successful if people are ‘web- savvy’ in the first place.

Empowering people by equipping them with the skills and confidence to get the most from new digital communications technologies is the foundation of a media literate society.

* * *

In the UK, it’s apparently the BNP that has taken most advantage of new media to reach out to voters…

Meanwhile, television and radio in the UK are subject to very severe political and issue advertising bans enforced by Ofcom.  The bans only allow for limited advertising in party political broadcasts during election season.  So, far from empowering people, Ofcom participate in a scheme that shelters them from certain unfiltered political messages.  The current scheme heavily favours established political parties.

It is thus very amusing that Ofcom would associate its media policies with Obama.  Obama spent far more advertising on television and radio than online.  Ofcom’s rules would have flatly prevented Obama from getting the bulk of his message across.

In the UK:  No he couldn’t…