Left: Bruce Golding, Leader of the Jamaica Labour Party and candidate for West Kingston. Right: Prime Minister Portia Simpson Miller sounds the trumpet in Half-Way Tree on July 8. - Ricardo Makyn/Staff Photographer

The People's National Party (PNP), which has been slow off the mark in its advertising campaign for the August 27 General Election, is beginning to have media presence on television, with their latest ad targeting Jamaica Labour Party (JLP) leader Bruce Golding.

The advertisement, titled 'From the Horse's Mouth', features a computer-generated image of a braying horse on one side of the screen with the JLP leader, on the other side, admitting that the PNP "has a superb political machinery".

Golding is also shown reminding Labourites that, for many years "we have gathered as a party in opposition" and "... we vex". This image is followed by that of a smiling Karl Samuda on a PNP platform saying with obvious delight, ".... what a way PNP sweet".

The ad ends with jubilant images of a dancing (some might say prancing) Prime Minister Portia Simpson Miller having fun at the July 8 rally at Half-Way Tree when she announced the election date.

PNP winner?

The ad had four rotations in the 'Prime Time News' hour on TVJ Monday night, followed by another four exposures on CVM's 'News Watch' hour, suggesting that the PNP campaign directorate believe they have a winner.

This latest PNP ad was clearly designed as a response to the very effective JLP attack ad which cleverly spliced recent comments by several government ministers on the poor state of various social services and other problems facing the country, interspersed with the constant refrain by the Prime Minister, "not changing no course".

The response would give supporters something to smile about and it also had the benefit of drawing the tongue of the JLP leader, according to media reports of a JLP mass rally in Bog Walk, St. Catherine, on Saturday night.

"If you watch your television, you see them dig up all kinda things that go back 10-15 years. So they grab a little thing that I might have said and they clap that on the TV. And they grab a little thing that Karl Samuda has said and they clap that on the television. And then they say, see it dere. Well you know, we can go back in time too," Golding said.

His response suggests that the ad had at least one desirable effect. However, it is not likely to have lasting impact because of its uninspired production values, and the fuzziness and age of the message.

Samuda, now JLP general secretary, made the comment some 15 years ago when he joined the PNP after being expelled from the JLP. He stayed for two years before returning to the JLP.

In Golding's case, his comment about the vaunted PNP machine was made when he had left the JLP to form the National Democratic Movement and, no doubt, the PNP hopes the ad will raise questions of trust in the minds of voters. Can you really trust a leader who has flip-flopped from party to party?

The use of Golding's comment about being in opposition for a long time was to send a message to voters to keep them there, but it could have the unintended effect of tapping into the vein of change that has been at the heart of the JLP's arguments in the campaign.

This latest PNP ad was clearly designed as a response to the very effective JLP attack ad which cleverly spliced recent comments by several government ministers.