AmbergrisCaye.com Home Forums The Cayes Ambergris Caye Elections OPPOSITION DISTANCES ITSELF FROM POLITICAL AD

The People's United Party has strongly condemned the airing of a paid
political advertisement on Television last night. The caricature purports
to depict the Prime Minister engaged in a scene that is distasteful.
Attorney at law Lisa Shoman who is the communications director for the
People's United Party this afternoon told Love News that even though public
perception is that the advertisement originated in the PUP campaign
arsenal, the party is in no way connected to the distasteful program.

Senator Lisa Shoman - Communications Director, PUP
'I want to say in the strongest possible terms until it is absolutely clear
that the People's United Party is not responsible for this contemptible
cartoon caricature. That is the first thing. The second thing is that we
condemn it in the strongest possible terms as being completely base and
absolutely outside the accepted norm of any party political campaign in
Belize or anywhere else.

Patrick Jones - Reporter
"Are you aware that there is talk that this particular commercial emanated
from within the PUP campaign?"

Senator Lisa Shoman - Communications Director, PUP
"I am aware of that and that is precisely what we have been spending the
morning, talking to various people trying to find out, making sure. I can
tell you, this is absolutely not attributable to the work of the People's
United Party campaign."

Patrick Jones - Reporter
What can the party do to help in getting that commercial pulled from the
air?

Senator Lisa Shoman - Communications Director, PUP
"As far as I am aware, it is no longer airing. I believe it's aired once,
I'm not sure if it was more than that, but I am informed that it was at
least once, and even once Patrick, is too much. It absolutely, absolutely
should not be shown in any way, shape or form."

Patrick Jones - Reporter
Given the political climate, what can be done to ensure that a repeat of
this heinous ad is not perpetrated on the Belizean people?

Senator Lisa Shoman - Communications Director, PUP
"Patrick, the party is absolutely prepared to work along with all other
political parties to ensure that while we may deal with each other's
policies, the politics of vindictiveness and personal attacks, absolutely
should not be carried out. Politicians because of what they do, know that
there is a certain amount that is attributable to decisions that are made
when one is in office, but the People's United Party has never been in the
business of attacking people's personal lives and this one is completely
outside the pails. This is outside the accepted norms and we reject it
absolutely."

In a statement issued this morning from the PUP Secretariat, the party
pours contempt on what is calls a contemptible caricature.

LOVEFM

Crass Anti-Barrow Ad Pulled; PUP Says:

And moving from candidates to commercials... last night on this newscast, you probably saw a very tasteless one featuring the Prime Minister disrobing in burlesque style. We suspect it was meant to be funny, but with images of the PM gyrating and stroking himself like a stripper, it crossed the line and came across as just plain crass, or you might say, "sleck!"

Well, we got complaints from a fair number of viewers - and we heard you loud and clear -and it seems the PUP did as well - and this morning, the party furiously backpedaled to distance itself from the creators of the ad.

Now, you might be scratching your head at this point saying: "how can the PUP distance itself when it created the ad?" And you would be right to ask that question; after all, it looks like a PUP ad - after all, who else is advertising against Prime Minister Barrow? But, Party Leader Francis Fonseca fired off a text to us this morning saying quote "the�Ad is not a PUP AD; It is distasteful, and I condemn it."

And by noon, the party's Communications Director Lisa Shoman had issued a release saying, "The PUP wishes to make it absolutely clear that we are not responsible at all for this contemptible caricature. We condemn, in the strongest terms, this ad as being base and completely outside the accepted norm of any party political campaign."

Ok then�strong words, but if not the PUP, then who else would produce such an ad? Well, we can say for sure that the persons who placed and paid for the ad are known to us to be PUP sympathizers and operatives - but we cannot say that it came from the PUP Secretariat or Headquarters; it did not.

At any rate, the sponsors have pulled the ad - and it lives on, on Youtube - where, we gather, it is gaining some degree of viral video status - which seems to suit the creators just fine.

We will add for context that the PUP Party had no pious, principled complaint when this same group of PUP-sympathizers aired very many anti-Barrow ads on their behalf. So the moral distance being put now between the creators and the party - we imagine - is mostly for effect.

Channel 7

from a friend....

Well, the campaign ads are in full bloom. Yellowman has been resurrected, and is the star of an ad where he stands next to a slop bucket with the letters PUP printed on it. In his usually animated way, he narrates something along the lines of ...

Mark Espat JUMP outta di bucket
Carlos Diaz own the toilet, and he neva want TOUCH the bucket
Dem throw Shackron eena di bucket
Etc..."

BUT, the ad causing the most shock waves is an ad broadcast by the two top television stations featuring a strip-teasing Dean Barrow. It should be noted that the ad does not say "paid political ad"at the bottom. The PUP put out a press release yesterday distancing itself from the ad, and I think it/the controversy featured as a news item on Channel 7 news yesterday.

I must say, the PUP's ads are very civilized, unlike a couple of the UDP ads. Needless to say, they are all very creatively done and very effective at getting messages across.

Here is the offending ad...

Response from another friend.....

Offending? I found it fine entertainment. Great fun. If you can´t laugh at yourself you are in trouble.

here's the ad

hysterical!

The AD that is Causing Epic Wedgies and Getting Panties in a Bunch

OK, so I finally got to see the Dean Barrow AD that everyone is getting their panties all bunched up and giving themselves Super Wedgies over.

People are getting tired of Political Bullshit. People are starting to practice their Constitutional rights of freedom of speech. People are starting to act out in the way that Dean Barrow himself edged people to do before they won the last elections.

Civil Unrest he called for. Anybody memba dat?

As I always say � Be careful what you wish for you just might get it. Give people power and they will use it.

I have heard and seen worst things by politicians in the past. Families being slandered, party supporters being attacked and their persona damaged and worst.


The video was an editing that put Deans head on someones body. Nowhere was there note or mention that this was a paid political ad. In all honesty, if we will bitch about this we should have bitched more about the Billboards with the Barrow Royal Family. That involved family members.

Too, remember when the UDP put up a picture of that female in their newspaper? If it wasn't for the women that stood up and made noise about it, nobody would have said anything especially those from the UDP side. I am yet to hear a public apology from them for that.

Now I am not picking sides here but trying to say that political attacks on people's persona is actually an expected thing in Belize. From as far back as I can remember it was a thing of normalcy; it has always been part of the "Show".

If you are a politician in Belize, you SHOULD expect things like this will come up, especially these days when people were shown that Civil Disobedience and Freedom of Speech and Actions can and should be practiced.

I saw it as an analogy to striping talk from dean Dean and exposing him for his actions and accomplishments. What do you think?

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