Burwood Ward candidate Kelly Barber has been criticised for orchestrating a copycat advertising campaign, replicating the message used successfully by a rival in last year’s Coastal Ward by-election.
Barber’s campaign leaflet is undeniably similar in tone and presentation to literature distributed by Celeste Donovan, a clear winner of October’s poll to succeed James Daniels, who stood down part way through his term.
Barber finished a distant fifth behind Donovan when he stood under the Labour banner. He is now focused on his home ward as an independent aligned to mayoral candidate and outgoing Burwood representative Phil Mauger.
“It looks like Kelly has just copied it for his own letterbox drop, it is a pretty lazy way of creativity,” the resident wrote.
Donovan was initially relaxed when realising Barber’s messaging struck a chord.
“I did notice it was so similar, it was almost a carbon copy,” said Donovan, who is yet to do a leaflet drop for her re-election campaign.
“He had been quite complimentary of my campaign last year and he seemed particularly enamoured with my leaflet.
“I had a feeling he might use it for inspiration, but I didn’t realise it would be quite so similar.”
Side by side the leaflets display the same core values, from the opening paragraph.
Donovan: Kia Ora, I’m Celeste Donovan and I’m running to be your councillor.
Barber: Kia Ora, I’m Kelly Barber and I’m running to be your Independent City Councillor for Burwood.
The parallels continue, with Donovan declaring: It’s time for a fresh start; Barber agrees: “It’s time for change in our city!
Barber also shares Donovan’s attributes. Where she highlights: ‘Engaged’ ‘Committed’ and ‘Take Action’ Barber has bolded: ‘I’m Engaged’ ‘I’m Committed’ and ‘I Take Action’.
“I was initially flattered but the flip side is there is a cost for the design and preparation of these leaflets and quite a bit of work goes into writing content and developing a unique style/design for my campaign,” she said.
“So it’s disappointing as I put a lot of time, energy and money into providing a clear view on what I stand for.
“Now that Kelly is widely promoting his leaflet as representing his own views and effort, maybe Kelly could publicly acknowledge he did base his design material on mine so at least people know it wasn’t the other way around.
“Perhaps he might want to look at what he stands for rather than relying on where other people are coming from. Being his own man, I guess,” said Donovan, who added she would not seek a contribution towards her costs.
“I’m not looking for financial reimbursement, more recognition for his ‘inspiration’,” she said.
Barber, meanwhile, was unrepentant.
“I’m certainly capable of my own thoughts and no one has a mortgage on the English language,” he said.
“I don’t see what difference it makes. At the end of the day the statements are true and I’m sure those words have been used in many different flyers. I don’t see what the issue is.
“That’s one of the things we do, we look at material and look for good ways to express our ideas,” he said.
“It’s petty, to put it mildly. I’m not running against her so I don’t know why she’d be concerned. I think she’s playing politics and I don’t want to play.”
