An unusual advertising fence called Tom Smith earlier this week while heading to work at the University of Emory in Atlanta.
Pay by the Canadian government, the billboard told Americans in large letters in bold that “tariffs are a tax on its grocery bill.”
“I thought it was quite a novel,” said Smith, economics professor. “Literally, I am teaching this in my class that tariffs are a tax, that tariffs will increase prices nationwide.”
When asked if he thought the message was effective, Smith said that is in the air.
“I don’t know if you will change people’s minds,” he said, referring to Americans who support the tariffs of the president of the United States over Canada and other countries. “There is a current of, say, resistance to information that is quite widespread.”
But, he added, “if one of the incentives was to make people talk about tariffs, that goal has certainly achieved.”
The Federal Government has launched an anti-tariff billboard campaign in 12 states mostly Republicans and Washington, DC messages in advertising fences include: “Tariffs are a tax in the gas pump” and “Tariffs are a tax on working Americans.”
Although the jury is still out of the effectiveness of the campaign, one thing is safe: it has gone viral.
Although the signs only began to appear in recent days, many US media have already covered the story with striking headlines such as “Canada points to US tariffs with provocative advertising fences in Florida.”
A REDDIT publication About a billboard in Buckeye, Arizona, so far he has obtained 13,000 votes from readers and more than 500 comments.
Ottawa launched the campaign “To inform Americans about the economic impacts of tariffs,” said Global Affairs spokesman Canada John Babcock in an email to CBC News.
The tariffs they are concerned include a 25 percent tariff on steel and Canadian aluminum, and threatened tariffs in a wide range of other Canadian products, including cars and car parts, which take effect on Wednesday.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=knagxqrjsyy
Are advertising fences fun?
The billboard campaign faces Trump ubiquitous messages that imposing tariffs on imported goods from other countries will force companies to build factories in the United States, create more jobs and strengthen the economy.
There also seems to be a fault in the campaign. On his way to work in a nearby hospital in Columbus, Georgia, Kelly Jessop says that he saw one that said “tariffs are a tax” in English, but that the rest of the message was in French.
“I just thought it was fun,” he said. “No one in the south of Georgia speaks French … so that would be completely lost in most people in that area.”
CBC News did not receive news from global affairs immediately on the bilingual billboard.
Chris Ervin also thought that the advertising fence he observed in New Port Richey, Florida, this week was fun, but for different reasons. The message was: “Tariffs are a tax on its edible bill.”
“I laughed,” said Ervin, who firmly supports Trump’s tariffs and believes that the Canadian government is wasting his money in Florida.
“This is Trump’s territory. Most people here love what they are doing,” he said.
When CBC News suggested that US companies forced to pay 25 percent of import rates can transmit the cost for US buyers, Ervin replied that it could avoid price increases buying national products in the supermarket.
“Look at all the brands we can buy that are made in the United States,” he said. “I’m not going to buy Canadian whisk. I will end up buying something done.”
Choose your words carefully
Economist Moshe Lander says that Ervin’s argument highlights a defect in the messages of the Canadian government that tariffs will lead to higher food prices.
“American consumers do not buy many edibles from Canada to begin with. And how groceries buy in Canada, they should be able to find substitutes,” said Lander, a professor at the University of Concord in Montreal.
The president of the United States, Donald Trump, and Prime Minister Mark Carney acclaimed his first phone call as “very productive” and “cordial”, but although Trump refrained from referring to Canada as state 51, warned that automobile tariffs will begin next week as planned.
He suggests that the supermarket message is ineffective because “a fear tactic only works if it is backed by a credible threat.”
Moshe says that the warning that tariffs are a tax in the gas pump include more blows, because it is credible.
Trump has said that he will impose a 10 percent rate on Canada’s oil and gas exports.
Much of Alberta oil is sent to US refineries. UU. They are configured to process the Canadian crude. Moshe says there is no easy substitution.
“The only one [other country] That has Alberta raw is Venezuela and that is on the United States successes, so that is not happening. “The Trump administration has recently deported hundreds of Venezuelans, claiming without evidence that they are gang members or” alien terrorists. ”
Global issues did not answer a question about the suggested messaging failure, and did not provide a cost for the billboard campaign.
Regardless of the messaging, it is still questionable if the advertising fences will have a lot of influence.
“What does the Canadian government expect to get some kind of campaign like this?” Ervin said.
“I can’t imagine anyone in Florida paying attention to those things.”
