Labour, John Campbell and #ABstoSamoa

matthew 1 Comment

Last week Campbell Live ran a story about how the All Blacks have never played a Test in Samoa. This has resulted in Campbell Live starting a petition to get this changed, their show on Friday was live from a rugby club, where they were collecting signatures. Part of this was the use of #ABstoSamoa hash tag. This really took off and ended up trending world wide:

abstosamoa

 

I am all for the use of social media to help influence the decisions of government and business. It can be a great tool to show people how widely something is cared about. For a New Zealand/South Pacific focused hashtag to start trending world wide is a pretty decent achievement.

 

But what I don’t get is why the Labour Party have decided to jump onboard.

labour

 

It is great to see that a political party is paying attention to what is being talked about on social media, but I just don’t see what they feel they are going to gain? I know Rugby is a big deal in New Zealand, but do the Labour Party really believe that there are going to be people who will vote for them, over any other party, because they have expressed support for sending the All Blacks to Samoa? At the same time, are Labour suggesting that if they were in government, they would step in to make the tour or test happen?

 

As odd as I may find the fact they produced the graphic, I must give them credit for the quality of the graphic. It is simple, with a simple message. If they can take this quality of graphic, and produce them for other topics that might give them better returns.

matthew

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One Comment

  1. Matthew, I find this politicising of the ABs to be extremely unfortunate.
    1 The Labour Party support suggests a predilection to interfere in sporting code’s decisions for political purposes. This is distasteful, but then they have form in this area.
    2 the tag line suggests that:
    A) Labour are somehow Owning the ABs, ‘our boys’
    B) Associates being patriotic with Labour and by inference others e.g. National are not; or
    C) Pasifika people are a Labour preserve

    This appropriation of a national icon for political purposes smacks of desperation.

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