Labour has unveiled its new TV campaign ad featuring party leader Jacinda Ardern. Photo / Supplied
Labour has unveiled its new TV campaign ad featuring party leader Jacinda Ardern, a lot of red and not much of anything else.
The ad features her sitting alone at a desk – a cuppa to her right and a nondescript journal and pen to her left.
It's 30 seconds long and features Ardern talking about how the Government went "hard and early to fight Covid".
"Our plan now is to rebuild the economy even stronger," she says as the camera slowly zooms into her face.
The ad focused on what the Government has done to fight Covid-19, and what Labour plans to do to get the economy up and running again, should it win re-election.
It is understood there is another ad – which has already been filmed – which was meant to come out first.
That one featured Ardern in the community talking about "the next steps".
However, the party decided to hold off on that one – opting instead to release this ad as the debut.
It is also understood there will be another Māori-focused ad – featuring Ardern speaking te reo.
The ad released today is a far cry from Labour's 2017 election campaign ads, which featured Ardern and a number of other Labour MPs.
That dynamic and upbeat ad cut between shots of her in a car, Labour supporters in the streets, kids at school and ended with Ardern standing on stage with her whole caucus behind her.
However, likely because of social distancing restrictions, this campaign the ad is just her, one shot and a slow zoom.
In fact, it is very reminiscent of the videos Ardern from her Beehive office before the first lockdown, where she announced the alert levels.
But this time, Ardern is not in her Beehive office; she is at a desk at the Augusto studios – the ad agency which created Labour's new ad.
There is a lot of Labour party red in the frame: Ardern's Jacket, flowers and a few red books.
To her left is a framed photo of New Zealand's first Labour Prime Minister, Michael Joseph Savage.
It appears to be the same, or very similar, portrait to the one she keeps at her Beehive office.
Under the video – which was released by Labour on its website this afternoon – there is a link where people are asked to "donate to get our ad in front of more Kiwis".
In a press release that went out heralding the new video, Labour's campaign manager Megan Woods said the ad was first shown to Labour supporters before going live online.
"This is a people-powered campaign, made possible by thousands of volunteers around the country, and it only felt right that they saw our commercial first."
The worker logged 437 hours in five weeks - all of which was unpaid.