Boone Oakley gives a subtle middle finger to North Carolina's Governor

North Carolina’s conservative Republican governor Pat McCrory turned 60 today, October 17. BooneOakley and Writers For A Progressive America, are upset with the Governor for being behind the HB 2 bill, the so-called "Bathroom Bill," which was passed by North Carolina's general assembly and signed by the Governor reversed a Charlotte (the capital of North Carolina) ordinance extending some rights to people who are gay or transgender.

According to the Charlotte Observer where this print ad is running:

North Carolina’s new law sets a statewide definition of classes of people who are protected against discrimination: race, religion, color, national origin, age, handicap or biological sex as designated on a person’s birth certificate. Sexual orientation – people who are gay – was never explicitly protected under state law and is not now, despite recent court decisions that legalized same-sex marriage. Transgender people who have not taken surgical and legal steps to change the gender noted on their birth certificates have no legal right under state law to use public restrooms of the gender with which they identify. Cities and counties no longer can establish a different standard. Critics of the Charlotte ordinance cite privacy concerns and say it was “social engineering” to allow people born as biological males to enter women’s restrooms."

The print ad's headline is a pun, HB2 U, Pat, also features a rainbow sliced cake with a candle to make it seem like it's a middle finger with an extended message about how the real celebration will begin when he's thrown out of office. It then decides to include a laundry list of stuff it wants voters to do on November 8th including the repealing of House Bill 2, expansion of Medicaid, protecting the environment, and paying teachers fairly. In advertising terms it doesn't stick to the brief and it branches out in messaging worse than a retail cell phone ad. Moreover, the snark is poorly timed. The North Carolina Republican headquarters was firebombed over the weekend; they're lucky no one was hurt in that incident as this would not have been a good look.

Taking politics out of it (please, God) for an ad supposedly representing writers, the use of a pun makes me think they need new writers in North Carolina. All I can say is I'm glad the elections are almost over because I can't take much more of this crap on either side.

Client: Writers for a Progressive North Carolina
Client Lead: Joyce Fitzpatrick, Fitzpatrick Communications, Raleigh
Agency: BooneOakley
CD: David Oakley
CW: Mary Gross
ADs: Eric Roch von Rochsburg, Laura Beebe, Jim Mountjoy
Digital Director: Ashley Neel