Cóir launches heart blitz as image war hots up

POSTER CONTROVERSY:ANTI-LISBON group Cóir has begun another controversial poster campaign warning of serious consequences if the Lisbon Treaty is passed.

The group has produced a series of four pink, heart-shaped posters, containing provocative slogans such as “the EU loves low wages” and “Kiss your freedom goodbye”.

One of the posters displays the message “We love our Constitution, Vote No” while another claims “Politicians love the gravy train”.

The group’s initial campaign posters, which included a claim that the minimum wage would drop as low as €1.84 if the treaty were passed, have been labelled as “cynical” and “disingenuous” by Yes campaigners.

However, Cóir spokesman Richard Greene said: “We’ve got a huge response to our first series of posters.

“So much so that Cóir’s campaign website is now the most popular Irish website on Lisbon.

“We’re expecting these pink hearts to build on that.

“The colour and appearance of our second wave of posters will get a lot of attention, and they are delivering an effective, hard-hitting message,” he said

Mr Greene said postering was a vital part of any successful political campaign and that Cóir, with only a fraction of the budget of the Yes campaign, had succeeded “in raising crucially important issues by designing relevant posters and getting them up on poles ahead of the competition”.

He said that 4,000 of the new posters would be erected in the coming days, and that a third series of posters was also planned later in the campaign.

Several prominent Yes groups and campaigners have denied responsibility for a series of anti-Cóir posters, depicting a monkey holding a placard emblazoned with the words “No to Nuts”, and including the message “Are Cóir driving you nuts, Vote Yes to Lisbon”.

The posters, which were erected along several of the capital’s busiest thoroughfares last week, have been taken down by Dublin City Council.

Mr Greene declined to speculate as to who was behind the posters but said he believed they represented “a huge own goal for the Yes side” as they were deeply offensive to people who suffered from psychiatric illness.

He said he was concerned that Cóir posters were being taken down illegally across the country, especially in Dublin and Cork, and that the group had made a formal complaint to the Garda.

Cóir said it was planning to spend about €250,000 on some 11,000 posters and up to one million leaflets.