Unfortunately Steve, in advertising like TV, it's called 'Jumping the Shark'

The new Tory attack ads, running on the radio, can't be polling that well if you've got this many Conservative officials out there explaing why they ran them.

According to the Globe this morning, the Tories decided to fast-track their attack ads against the Liberals to remove the focus from their own poor performance.

One senior Conservative official said some Tory officials also wanted to spook the Liberals so they would not topple the government as it experienced one of its most difficult periods since taking power in 2006. 

Patrick Muttart, told officials the ads had been released earlier to try to blunt bad publicity over the resignation of former foreign affairs minister Maxime Bernier.

The Prime Ministers Office "wanted to get out and do some defining again - set the agenda," said the source. "After a few weeks of the Bernier mess, enough was enough."

Another Conservative official claims "There were fears that we would be toppled last week in the House," the source said Friday. "So it was moved up a bit precisely because of that." The source said the Tories did not want an election because of recent dips in their polling numbers and a series of other controversies.

And yet another, senior Conservative said the main thrust of the ad campaign was to "brand" Mr. Dion as a tax-and-spend Liberal.

The article goes on to explain how the Tories came up with their ad campaigns and how they could be launched and delivered to the media within hours.

"A bunch of people in the party had several weekends worth of what were sort of called counterattack scripting meetings where we anticipated several different attacks,". 

Well that explains a lot.

Like how you could develop video ads for gas pumps without getting clearance from the company that actually owns the pumps. I mean what gas company would want to risk upsetting any potential customers, with gas at an all time high.  

And as for the replacement radio ads they launched this weekend. If you haven't heard them yet, the ads consist of a talk-show radio host taking a call from someone complaining about the Liberals new tax grab. 

Although annoying in concept, they are actually funny if you imagine that it is the Spotty, the cute, Conservative oil spill that is doing the talking. Somehow I can't get him off of my mind.

Jumping the shark: A term used in media to describe the the beginning of the end or marking the moment the subject is "past its peak."  The moment when Fonzie jumps over a shark while on water skis in a scene in Happy Days and when the Tories chose an oil spill as their spokesperson.