Sunday, October 30, 2011

Mayor Election Sign Wars - the Good, the Bad, the Ugly & the VERY Tacky

The Sign Wars of 2011 have started and obviously as of midnight last night the three Langley Township Mayor candidates were off and running to garner the choice locations in the dark of the night. When it comes to the best sign of any of the contending Mayors the hands down winner is Mel Kositsky. His name is prominent, his web site is clear & prominent. His picture stands out large and in fact is the only one of the three that
has a great picture. "Mel for Mayor - It's Time" logo is catchy short and to the point. The artwork is bold, colourful & very professional. The overall sign graphics is modern classy, professional and dead on. First prize blue ribbon on signs goes to Mel Kositsky. He wins hands down by a country mile.  Mel's sign has swag!

Jack Froese's signs come in second and not a close second either. We question why there was no picture considering as Jack is a political newcomer and voters won't be able to put a face on his candidacy. But his sign scores points by having his name larger than anyone else's signs. Name is key but again the huge 'Mel for Mayor' logo is still far more catchy and memorable. Colours are nice but the baby blue  is too understated, too soft and easy going and not quite as clear in bringing out the message. Too soft is not a message any Mayor ever wants to portray in this Editor's opinion. Jack's full length body picture in his print ads would have been much more effective on his
signs.

The clear Mayors' sign wars loser is incumbent Mayor Rick Green with this tragic mish mash that essentially says: " don't look at me I'm ugly, busy, boring and hard on the eyes". Why would anyone design it so Rick is in black & Green is in Red?  His name and his slate-mate's names are lost in this busy amateurish collage that a two year old would create. Green's name is clumsily off center and the names and sheer volume of writing/information is tiresome, tacky and plain ugly. Whoever designed this sign must have gone to the design school of schlock. The slate-mates should put their graphic designers out of their misery and never use this firm for anything but perhaps graphics for more somber events. I specifically point out the black sign border and the double solid black line through the top third that reminds one of a wake not an election! But then again maybe the designer of this sign foresees the future and is really a sabotaging closet Kositsky or Froese supporter,


Either the Green campaign saw the same issues that this Editor noted above or perhaps simply ego got in the way that caused the Green campaign to re-use their last election's signs too. But tacky still rules the day as stick on coverings were applied to three portions of the old Green signs. Very cheap semi transparent stick ons were used.  The above picture to the left clearly shows that you can see the old original elect under the sticker! We can hardly wait to see these cheap stickers droop and start to peel off that will just enhance tacky. The VLN stick on at the bottom covers up something too. Our bet is that this is where it used to probably proudly proclaim that Green was an Independent candidate! What a joke. The B&W head & shoulders picture also looks more like a high school graduation book picture in this editor's opinion. At first I did not recognize who it even was! In a nutshell both signs are knuckle draggers that epitomize tacky.

On another note we found it very interesting insofar as Jack Froese's signs were installed with quality 2 by 4's and most significantly of note is that this is the first time this Editor has ever seen a sign that had the supporting wood painted to match the sign colours. Amazingly the Froese campaign went as far as painting the wood white (see picture above) and even though you can't see it in this picture the small stakes tops were painted baby blue too! Unbelievable but true. This Editor gives Kudos on the details to Jack's team and does make this Editor wonder if this means the attention to detail is a great indicator of him as Mayor or whether he will just be bogged down on unnecessary detail?

This last picture shows you what unpainted wood looks like. This is Green's sign and note the small slats of cheap wood but look closely at the  intricate craftmanship of the wood supporting the sign. NOT! This sign and it's support construction screams cheap-tacky once again. Maybe this is an indicator of the true support propping up Green and his slate-mates.

In summary  9.5 out of 10 for Kositsky. 7 out of 10 for Froese. Green's signs were so far below that I leave it up to you to assign a value out of 10. Enjoy.
by LFP EDITOR



9 comments:

  1. If any readers see any more tragic examples of these signs please forward then to this Editor for publication in our signs hall of shame.

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  2. Unbelievable but true - the ends of the 2 x 4s for Jack Froese's signs came painted that colour.
    The sign construction matches the candidate - strong and stable.

    On Saturday night all the signs on 208th north of the overpass were kicked down by vandals except Jack's. They tried but it stood up to the bullying. Watch the papers Tuesday to see how that gets reflected in real life.

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  3. Anonymous6:22 pm

    I'd give the Green signs a score of three zeros - zero for imagination, zero for construction, zero for safety. Some signs block sight lines at intersections. Example, the sign at 224 and 16 (north east corner) blocks the sight of a driver. I had to go pass the white line to see west bound traffic. I am not voting for Green.

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  4. The Green slate-mate's camp is obviously so embarrassed about their signs that their prolific "Green-can-do-no-wrong-royal-letter-writers" have to resort to name calling of our Publisher now! They must greatly miss Joe Z. in the Langley Times!

    Believe it or not a Langley Times comment by "Al_Bunion" today on a totally unrelated non-sign topic utilized the following stupid intro line: "Reading of new schools reminded me of what I read yesterday on Langley Free Press. I've always voted for Kim Richter, but after reading her puerile analysis of the Mayor's roadside signs..." blah..blah...blah.

    Only a prolific "Green-can-do-no-wrong-royal-letter-writer" would try to draw a parallel between announcing a new school and this LFP Editor's (not Cllr. Richter's) article about the signs! How uncreative and very sad.

    This reminds this Editor that Al_Bunion probably would also have a 500 word essay ready saying why a "misleading statement" is not a "lie". He probably would also suggest a small-to-a-medium lie is ok too as long as one is not caught and it dosn't result in criminal charges! So Al_Bunion, is anything & everything right up to actual criminal charges being laid fair game? If yes, sure gives new meaning to an honesty & integrity platform! How's all this Al_Bunion for tit-for-tat unrelated linkage? LOL.

    Hey "Al_Bunion" did you also write the slate-mates full page ad saying the slate won't talk about the "Green-Gate Affair" anymore? That was brilliant (not)! FYI all your babble and arguments are precisely the reasons why "V L N" really stands in this Editor's opinion for "Vote Lies Now".

    P.S. BTW, Are you one of the so called Green slate-mates gang business group that good rumour says, has been assigned to target specific incumbent councilors with "puerile" snake oil venom? More about this coming in LFP in a couple of weeks!

    Bet my comments will lead to new and even more virulent unrelated tangents in the Times tommorrow!

    Oh by the way we are always open to guest columns and colunmists as LFP has always done. Email this Editor if interested (except you Al_Bunion!).

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  5. Anonymous8:17 pm

    If this is how Green builds signs then it's no wonder he can't manage a council or a city!

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  6. Anonymous8:49 pm

    In response to Al_Bunion's nonsense I just loved this letter to the Editor http://langleytoday.ca/?p=14170 It says it all so simply.

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  7. Anonymous9:32 pm

    I think the only signs that went up on Sunday morning were, Rick Greens....
    So disrespectful of
    the other candidates to put their signs right in front of his...and in one case, I saw his sign down, and Dan Sheels' in front of his.
    I can personally tell you- that Rick's signs were all professionally put together, and planned so all 288 were pegged in the ground within 3 hours.I don't know who mocked that one with all the boards behind it....as that is NOT how they were assembled.

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  8. Anonymous2:37 pm

    Isn't it sad there are vandals out there to destroy signs. What is the point????? All the Green signs that were destroyed are repaired and up- and 1000 more are going up.

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  9. Anonymous7:51 pm

    The township should do something about the Green VLN signs. There is one on 65 ave across from the entrance to the advance poll. It's so unfair to other law abiding independant candidates. Please take the sign down. Is it that hard for Mr Green to respect the law of the land?

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