Globe and Mail: Scatological attack on Stephen Harper’s record goes viral

[tuvor]

Stephen Harper may be leading in the polls, but the anti-Harper forces appear to be winning the viral-video war. A handful of comical videos, including a potty-mouthed entry that tore up Facebook and Twitter on Wednesday, are pulling in big numbers and offering Harper haters a forum to express their mutual disdain for the Conservative Leader.

The fastest-growing video features five scruffy hipster types talking trash of Mr. Harper and suggesting viewers check out the website ShitHarperDid.com. (In addition to the rough language, it leverages the other special ingredient of viral videos – cats – by concluding with an image of Mr. Harper cradling a kitten.) That website offers nuggets of information about Mr. Harper’s alleged misdeeds, delivered in a lighthearted manner. The website proved so popular that it crashed Wednesday afternoon, with organizers claiming it had received more than one million hits.

One of the video’s producers said he felt compelled to engage prospective voters with entertaining content. “I think Mr. Harper is reshaping this country in quite appalling ways, and I think people haven’t really taken notice because Canadian politics is kind of boring, and I think Mr. Harper is actually using that as a strategy,” said Sean Devlin, 27, a Vancouver comedian and video producer, adding that the initiative was the product of about two dozen people from across the country. “When he is attacked, or when really serious issues are brought up, he tries to make them seem boring, almost because he wants people to not pay attention.

“We thought, let’s get some of this above that white noise, and especially let’s get it out to the two-thirds of people under 35 who don’t even pay attention to the news. Let’s take everything he’s done that we find so shocking, and let’s package it in an entertaining way.”

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http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/politics/ottawa-notebook/scatological-attack-on-stephen-harpers-record-goes-viral/article1984598/