Lien ad campaign rests before final push

Compared with those of his rival camps, KMT presidential candidate Lien Chan's (連戰) advertisement campaign in recent days has been noticeably low-key.

The reason, Lien's campaign staffers say, is that the party is preparing a new wave of ads.

This time advertisements will be positive, rather than digging dirt on other candidates, Lien's staff said.

A week ago, Lien's camp launched intensive propaganda offensives against the DPP's Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁).

For example, from Feb. 18 to Feb. 21 the KMT released a series of television and newspaper ads accusing Chen of "being flaky," "clinging to Taiwan indepen-dence" and "making empty promises."

The series of ads deliberately ignored independent James Soong (宋楚瑜).

Recently, Lien seems to have taken up a new approach to media advertisement. Even in his speeches at campaign rallies he has repeatedly focused on security and stability.

At the same time, the two presidential hopefuls, Soong and Chen, continuously barraged the public with television and newspaper ads.

A series of TV ads showing people's appreciation of Soong's achievements during his provincial governor term is getting extensive air time.

Wu Chung-li (吳中立), deputy campaign manager for Lien, said that the drop off in advertisements was due to limited resources, but that new actions are being prepared.

New ads promoting Lien's merits, rather than criticizing other candidates will be released probably tomorrow, Wu said.

Lien's spokesman and KMT legislator Chen Shei-saint (陳學聖) acknowledged that during the final stages of the race the impact of advertisements cannot be neglected and organizational mobilization will be essential to help the KMT win the race.

A series of small-scale advertisements promoting Lien has appeared in newspapers over the past several days.

In one advertisement three faces are displayed. In the middle is Lien and on his sides are two eccentric mask-like faces referring to Soong and Chen respectively. Above each face is a short phrase, negative ones for Soong and Chen and a positive one for Lien. The phrases read "Mourning Taiwan" (哀台灣) for Chen, "Loving Taiwan" (愛台灣) for Lien, and "Degrading Taiwan" (矮台灣) for Soong.

Other similar phrases are used in other ads in the new series.

Many people have found the advertisement confusing. Wu said that this series of advertisements was offered by supporters and the campaign headquarters did not take part in its production.

However, he finds the series creative and attention-grabbing, though he conceded it is hard to assess its effectiveness so far.

Cheng Tzu-leong (鄭自隆), a professor at the Department of Advertising of National Chengchi University, said that the message in the ad series is too vague.

"The texts are too simple. For those who can understand it, it only serves to further strengthen the stereotype they already have of the candidates," Cheng said.