Taxpayers are shelling out $26 million over three months for all those Economic Action Plan ads the Harper government is airing on TV and radio, wrote The Canadian Press on Sunday, March 13, 2011.

Alan Middleton, marketing professor at York University’s Schulich School of Business, called the dollars involved “huge”.

“A major advertiser like Procter and Gamble wouldn’t spend that within a year in Canada, it’s that big,” he said.

Annualized to about $100 million for a full year, “not even McDonald’s and Tim Hortons spend anywhere near that.”

Corporate giant Bell Canada spent $89.5 million on measured media in 2009, according to Marketing Magazine.

The massive TV and radio buy is shared among three federal departments for slick ads that began airing Jan. 11 and wrap up by March 31. The ads have been hitting some of Canada’s priciest advertising real estate: the Super Bowl, the Oscars, and Hockey Night in Canada.

Human Resources and Social Development Canada has budgeted $14.5 million on three separate advertisements over nine weeks. The Canada Revenue agency is shelling out $6.5 million over 11 weeks, and Finance would only say its $5 million campaign runs during February and March.

All the ads link to the Economic Action Plan website which has drawn the ire of critics across the political spectrum for its partisan tenor.

The current run of television ads is also coming under fire, in particular a Finance department spot that features actors singing the praises of the Harper government’s 2009 budget plan.

A series of phrases in light lettering hint at specific measures in the plan: “Knowledge Infrastructure,” “Small Business Tax Cuts.” But they don’t explain how people can access those measures.

Critics say the ads are aimed at promoting the government when they should be giving citizens specific program information.

Total federal advertising cost taxpayers $136.3 million in 2009-10, including $53.2 million on the Economic Action Plan.

The spending totals come on the heals of news that Finance has set aside another $4 million to advertise the March 22 federal budget during this current fiscal year which ends April 1.

Middleton said the surest sign of a pending election is the government’s own advertising blitz.

“It’s amazing how spending by departments that make you feel the government’s doing something goes up enormously before there’s an election called.”

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