MADE-UP NEWS
Brisbane’s Lord Mayor Graham Quirk has finally addressed this newspaper’s concerns that his party used electoral material so close in look to official Brisbane City Council documents that it suggested the LNP had official council status, thereby creating an unfair advantage at the recent council elections.
As reported, Brisbane City Council rules prohibit the use of the council’s distinct livery – a series of blue and yellow blocks down the left handside of publications that they call their “cleat” – for political purposes. Council has a history of being very, very particular about the use of its cleat and its use is very strictly monitored.
Cr Quirk has admitted its use is forbidden for political purposes, but stated that “LNP political advertising material does not use the council cleat”. In follow-up questions to that blunt denial, we have been asking the Lord Mayor for months to explain the difference in the two designs used, and why any reasonable person would not have mistaken one for the other. And earlier this week, Cr Quirk eschewed his PR media team and answered those criticisms personally, adding that he would be absolutely gobsmacked if any reasonable person could have mistaken the two designs.
“If you look at the posters and pamphlets and what not that the LNP and my Team Quirk members used for a long time before and then during the recent council elections, we always started that design feature with a yellow block at the top left of the page.
“The council cleat, of course, starts at the top with a blue block. That’s the exact opposite, isn’t it? So I’d be absolutely gobsmacked if Brisbane’s ratepayers did not pick up on that basic difference.”
The Lord Mayor also responded to our requests to explain why the colours on two glossy documents in our possession – one using the official cleat and one the LNP copycat – looked exactly the same, i.e. the yellow was indistinguishable from the yellow, as was the blue from the blue.
“To be perfectly honest, I would be absolutely gobsmacked if the people of Brisbane could not tell the difference.
“The cyan percentage in the official City Council cleat is 66 per cent of the total CMYK makeup of that process colour. The one the LNP used is 68 per cent.
“In settling on the CMYK makeup of the blue blocks we used in campaign material, the per cent of black used – that’s the K in CMYK, by the way – was a good 2 per cent different.
“You know people love their colours and surely they could tell that those blocks were different.
“It’s funny, though, isn’t it, that when the printing and publishing industries came up with the initials CMYK, all the other colours start with their first letter – cyan, magenta and yellow – but the black uses the K, the last letter. I wonder why they just didn’t call the process CMYB? Go figure, anyway.”
The Lord Mayor also addressed our claims that there was barely a difference between the design patterns if projected to the same size.
Well, that’s really quite silly,” Cr Quirk said. “Look at the use of the council cleat on the back of buses, and the design used by my new Central Ward councillor Vicki Howard on her campaign car (both pictured at top).
“I’d be absolutely gobsmacked if there was a single ratepayer in Brisbane who even at the quickest of glances could not tell a council bus from a small sedan. Further more...”
Okay, enough with the dripping sarcasm already! How long did it take for you to realise that we’ve made up all of the Lord Mayor’s comments? What gave it away? The idea that he wanted to clear the air with us all? Address an issue rather than just pushing some political barrow to his advantage?
So we decided to come up with the explanations you’ve been reading – pathetic and ludicrous as they might be – to explain how the LNP came to the decision to run a series of blue and yellow blocks down the lefthand side of documents, just as the City Council itself does. If it was not done intentionally to garner advantage by proclaiming some degree of official status with council, then let’s hear the reasons for it.
Yet it’s now some months since we asked the Lord Mayor to explain the use of his party’s copycat cleat. As we’ve said before, we’ll keep using the phrase “copycat cleat” and we’ll keep running this campaign until he does. You’d think that a civic leader who expects ratepayers to obey both the spirit and letter of council rules and by-laws would be going out of his way to show us he does too.
But sadly, to date, he does not appear at all eager to put to rest what we are entitled to believe were – in the absence of any rebuttal – underhanded and sneaky tactics that should not have been used and must never be repeated.
But if the Lord Mayor ever wants to dissuade us of that view with some straightforward and compelling arguments that convince us and more importantly, you, our readers, otherwise, then we’ll run them.
But to be perfectly honest, we will be absolutely gobsmacked if he can.
What the Lord Mayor answered ... and what he didn’t, way back when
Email sent on 13 April:
Preface: In a letter to Chairman of Council Councillor Krista Adams on 28 October last year, the council’s CEO Colin Jensen said in response to a question as to whether the council’s cleat could be used in political material: “No. MC026 Marketing, Communications and Advertising Policy states that Council’s logo and cleat are used to indicate council program association and activity. These design elements as set out in council’s Visual Style Guide must not be used on material that is of a political nature.”
We therefore ask:
1. Was the CEO’s take on council policy correct then?
Answer: Yes
2. Does that policy still apply, or have the rules changed?
Answer: This policy still applies. It has not changed.
3. If so, when?
Answer: N/A
4. If the rules have not changed, why are you and some of your LNP candidates using the council cleat, or a design so similar to it that any reasonable person could think they are one and the same, in political advertising material?
Answer: LNP political advertising material does not use the Council cleat or the Council logo.
So Lord Mayor, let’s reshape our questions ...
1. Please explain fully to our readers how the blue and yellow block design you used on various political documents before and during the recent council poll differed from the official City Council cleat, a design that you accept cannot be used for political purposes?
2. Please explain why you believe these differences were sufficient that any reasonable person could not have possibly mistaken one for the other.
3. For those who might form the view that you have deliberately bent council rules to your own advantage – namely to create the impression that LNP candidates had some form of official council backing – please explain why they are wrong.
