Oh Puffin poop

The first advertising gaffe of the campaign belongs to Steven Harper’s Conservatives, as their puffin relieving look at Stephan Dion, found itself pulled from the not a leader website with the Prime Minister offering up an apology.

According to the spinning masters of Toryland, it was an overzealous web creator who went free form with the free flow…, leaving the Prime Minister to wear the, puffin poop on this one.

The controversial message has of course been the talk of the news cycle for most of the day, as those networks that actually didn’t get a chance to air the spot, make amends by running it in their news casts and information programming.

The news cycle gave the pooping puffin a number of free flights on the nation’s airwaves, all while couched in the soothing tones of the Prime Minister, offering up his apologies for the ad and a desire for a clean campaign.

It almost makes you think that perhaps it was as though they thought that it would be a great idea to get their message out, while at the same time disowning it.

It kind of indicates that any thoughts of clean, informative campaign might be but a wishful moment from the fuzzy middle of the political spectrum.

With new media opportunities such as websites, blogs, YouTube, Facebook and such, the potential for less than classy presentations will always be there, many of those won’t be sanctioned by the various parties of course, but when the information that they put out has come from the head office and still steps beyond the bounds of good taste, then perhaps it may be time to issue a few emails and memos around the internal departments to get everyone on the same page.

The er, fallout, from the puffin poop spot was catalogued on a number of sites across the internet today.

Globe and Mail--The puffin gaffe
National Post-- John Ivison: Fruity Harper takes puffin poop in stride
National Post-- Gaffes overshadow policy, promises on campaign trail
Toronto Star-- Dion accepts Harper's apology over puffin poop ad
CBC-- Harper apologizes for 'tasteless' bird-excrement attack ad on Dion
CTV-- Harper says pooping puffin was 'tasteless'