Sponsor's Message

For a long, long time, online content producers have been trying very hard to turn the Net into just another form of television but this is a strategy that won't work until very fast broadband becomes ubiquitous.

Until then, all we get are bloated webpages and streaming video that stutters and/or produces small pixellated images.

Last night however, we saw that it's now the Net that leads the way and the TV industry has discovered that they're better off borrowing ideas from the Net rather than trying to force TV-type concepts on cyberspace.

Now have your say Got something to say about today's column, or want to see what others think?  Visit The Forums While you're here, why not visit the Aardvark Hall of Shame and perhaps make your own nomination.

I'm talking about the wonderful party political ad that the National Party has produced.

This ad has clearly been inspired by the growing number of Flash Media animations that have appeared on the web in recent times. Indeed, Aardvark's Lighten Up section (Fridays) often features examples of these cartoon-like animations, much to the amusement of readers.

If you haven't seen the ad I'm talking about you can find it on the NationalTV website.

However, despite the obvious Flash-media inspiration behind the ads, the idiots over at the National Website have chosen to present the ad in Windows Media format -- duh!

Surely this would be much better offered in the more compact form of an .SWF file. Indeed -- if they'd made it into a downloadable .SWF file the ad might have even received a wider distribution -- and isn't that what advertising is all about?

I suspect it won't belong before a small army of budding Flash animators get their fingers out and produce parodies of this parody. Who knows, we may be on the verge of the great political Flash-war!

Full marks to National for putting a bit of fun into what would otherwise be just another boring election filled with platitudes and promises. Labour's advertisement showing two OAPs -- perhaps an indication that the encumbent party is getting just a little past their best-by date?

A quick trip to the Labour Website shows that they're obviously not as proud of their campaign ads as National is. Where's the online copy of their TV advertising? I couldn't find it anywhere. And what's with spawning a new browser window when clicking on links from Labour's front page -- duh!

Both the major parties are showing a lot more media and Net savvy than they did during the last election but they still need some serious help if they want to make the most of their online presence. Let's hope they're better at running the country -- after all, they'll be doing it with *our* money.

What do you think of the latest party political ads from those who aspire to hold the reigns of power?

How do you rank their use of the Net in the lead-up to this election?

Go have your say in The Aardvark Forums

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