1 | 2 | NEXT >>

Libs Go Ballistic: The Toronto ad firm that created a Liberal television commercial denied yesterday that footage of a gun firing is a subliminal message. A Zapruder-like analysis of the video shows that the menacing gun pointing at the camera actually fires. One frame -- one-30th of a second -- shows a bright muzzle flash before the ad cuts to a shot of factory smokestacks. The image is used to illustrate the Liberal charge that the Tories would go soft on guns by eliminating the federal gun registry. Media reports on the ads last week made no mention of the gun discharging, saying only that it was pointed toward the viewer.

"There's absolutely nothing subliminal about it," said Jack Bensimon, president of Bensimon-Byrne. "It's entirely literal. If we had let it go a few more frames, you would have seen the bullet."

The ad firm dubbed the spot "Multi-scene manifesto," he said. Like all images in the commercial, the image of the gun was purchased from a stock footage supplier.

Is that Canadian stock footage? Mr. Bensimon declined to say.

Ethics guidelines prohibit the use of subliminal messaging, but the Canadian Broadcast Standards Council says it has never had a case involving a Canadian media organization.

The definition of subliminal is subjective enough that it is unlikely to apply to the Liberal ad, anyway.

"Normally a subliminal message is, in its most manipulative sense, the kind of thing where you're in front of the TV and an ad for popcorn comes on and somebody pops in a frame that says, 'Go and drink Pepsi,' " said Ron Cohen, the council's national chairman. "I wouldn't leap to the conclusion that this is a subliminal ad."

Mr. Cohen said his organization had received some calls about the ad, but it was too soon to tell if they were legitimate complaints that warrant investigation or merely listeners responding to some of the chatter about the commercial on AM radio.

The Conservatives say they haven't filed a complaint, but that didn't stop spokesman William Stairs from dusting off his Little Red Book for a quotation: "Mao said power comes out of the barrel of a gun. The only thing coming out of this ad is electoral defeat."

Microphone Fiend: The television producer who created the Ed Broadbent rap video that riled up Ottawa Conservatives is offering equal time should an old Reform warhorse end his retirement.

"If Preston Manning wants to come back, I'll do one on him," said Chris Mullington, the Ottawa video auteur who works with CBC's This Hour Has 22 Minutes.

Election rules limit corporate political donations to $1,000 in cash or services-in-kind. The cap on individuals is $5,000. But Mr. Mullington discounted allegations that the video he created would constitute an illegal campaign contribution.

He says he merely loaned the rights for Ed's Back to the Broadbent campaign. He made the clip for 22 Minutes, but it was rejected as too sympathetic to the former NDP leader. Under his agreement with the CBC, he retains copyright on anything he does for the show that gets left on the cutting room floor.