KEY POINTS:
Political advertising guru John Ansell is expecting to attract some flak at the election when he kicks off the Act Party's main advertising blitz later this year.
"If there is one thing lower than a politician, it's an advertising person who does politics."
Mr Ansell was the brains behind National's effective split billboards at the last election, as well as the television Taxathon ads featuring animated versions of Helen Clark and Michael Cullen dancing and singing, "Thank you very much for your kind taxation".
He had agreed to work for National again in this election but moved to Act after Sir Roger Douglas asked him to.
Mr Ansell quit National and began work on Act's campaign last Monday.
"I'm a dyed-in-the-wool Rogerphile. I've never made a secret of it and when Roger asks you for something you say yes."
He said he had not left National in the lurch by going to Act, despite having agreed to work for the party again.
"They've been very understanding."
Mr Ansell said he had agreed to return only recently, after resigning when Don Brash resigned in 2006. "I thought it was the right thing to do because I came in with him. It was no disrespect to John Key. I just thought I should get out of the way in case they wanted to get rid of me anyway."
However, he concedes National's current centrist approach is not where he sits politically. "I've always been very open about coming from Act when I was working for Don Brash. I did so because I thought his clear-cut vision seemed to have a lot in common with that of Roger Douglas."
Mr Ansell will not say what he is being paid, beyond saying: "It's enough, but not as much as I would be paid if I stayed with National. I'm not doing it for the money. I'm making less money."
He will not reveal when Act's campaign proper will make it to billboards around the country, and says he hasn't yet sighted his advertising budget.
He expects to have to downsize his budget from what it was in 2005.
"We will have to be to the other political parties what New Zealand is to the world. Run on the smell of an oily rag and do great stuff without much."
In 2005, Mr Ansell's ads attracted some vitriolic responses from the left. He said he was attacked for being "dishonest" with his billboards comparing Labour and National policies such as "iwi/ kiwi" and the education "excuses/exams." He is expecting more of the same this election.
"You do have to steel yourself when the people like the Russell Browns [Public Address blogger] attack you. You get used to it, but I didn't realise I'd get used to it quite so quickly. It really stung the first time."
However, that is what Mr Ansell is aiming at - describing his job as "to make ads that make news, that are controversial enough that [the media] will not be able to avoid putting them in the news."
He said right-wing parties internationally had difficulty portraying that they had "heart" - and his main job was to put heart into right-wing policies.
The strategy showed in a presentation he made to Act's conference at the weekend, when he showed an ad depicting "the priorities of Labour."
It said Labour could afford $25 million to save an endangered snail, but could not afford the same amount to fund Herceptin for women with breast cancer.
"We've got a default socialist country, but we are killing people with kindness.
"People think if you throw money at people, you're caring for them. It's not only incorrect, it's immoral ... '
