There is so much wrong with Tony Abbott’s first ever Facebook ad, that it’s hard to know where to begin. But begin we must…
For a start… it’s Tony Abbott’s Facebook ad. That’s pretty bad in its own right.
Secondly, the picture. It’s a freeze frame from a video, and it just happens to have frozen at a point which makes Tony look like (a) he’s just had a stroke, or (b) he’s just had that ‘other kind of a stroke’, which obviously no person should ever have to witness. For any reason.
Thirdly, the video opens with Tony’s trademarked Lizard lick – we’re not kidding, we can’t make this stuff up, it LITERALLY opens with a ‘Tony lizard lick’, followed by another half-Tony lizard lick, and then an uncomfortably long silence while Tony waits for his cue. Long story short, the video looks like it’s been made and edited by his 8-year-old nephew.
Fourthly, the video is called ‘Battlelines’. One of the things that people find odious about Abbott is his apparent belief that he’s locked in some undeclared war somewhere. People want a gentler politics, and most folks these days blame Abbott for making it all so toxic. His Facebook ad does precisely nothing to soften that perception.
Fifthly, the ad takes you to a website which is called www.battlelines.com.au. In for a penny, in for a pound, we suppose.
And finally, Tony left the comments section open on his ad. To put not too fine a point on it, what follows is a tsunami of shit-talk from people clearly offended that they were included in the Facebook targeting.
On that front, we clicked on the ‘Why am I seeing this ad’ link, and were given this thoroughly unsatisfying response from Facebook.
“One reason why you’re seeing this ad is that Tony Abbott wants to reach people who may be similar to [his]customers.”
Yeah… you can well and truly go fuck yourself Facebook….
In any event, if, like us, you’re ‘similar to Tony’s audience’ and you’re unlucky enough to be targeted by Tony’s ad, make sure you leave a comment to let him know how much taxpayer money he’s just wasted.