I'd like to very briefly respond to some of the points raised.
Party Image
This is why people don't take us seriously.
No, it isn't. Those people who don't take us seriously either do so because all they have to go on is the name or because they have only seen some of the negative reporting on what we stand for. If anything having a presence and presenting our positions to interested parties is going to be the opposite.
This is not the sort of thing we should be associating ourselves with. It's hard enough on the door step persuading people we aren't Somalians or about to commandeer a ship without this.
Is it? Oddly enough I have never had a discussion with someone on the doorstep confusing us with Somalian pirates, and I have spent rather a lot of time on the doorstep, at least as much time as any other member of the party that I can think of. This is about providing something for kids to do, it isn't presenting the party as anything other than sensible and hopefully fostering good will. You know as well as I do that I think that we need to be very careful about how we present ourselves to the public and making a decent assesment as to where the 'Pirate' element is a hindrance and where it might help. Yet even holding that positions I would suggest that given that we are the 'Pirate Party' we can gain some benefit from ensuring there is 'stuff to do' at our little stall and this is a very good way of doing it. It doesn't associate us with jolly seafaring pirates any more than the name already does and frankly I think it does rather a lot to show that we are credible and serious.
Putting our banner on a Black Beard drawing does not give off the serious political party image that I, and others, have been trying to portray on the doorstep.
No it doesn't. Of course it doesn't. But this is an activity aimed at kids. It is about raising our profile. It doesn't associate us with pirates any more than having colouring pictures of clowns at HSBC associates that bank with childrens entertainment. I mean come on, our logo is a stylised flag. This is a side activity, not the aim of the event, lets not lose sight of that.
As Loz said, it's time to stop playing politics and BE a political party.
And getting out into the community is a constructive way of doing that, it is what this is about, it is why I organised it. That is why I spent so much time trying to push talking to people, why I am trying to build decent relationships, why I spent time trying to ensure that we look professional and why I am standing for Campaigns Officer. This is us being a political party, this is us engageing with real people onthe street in a positive way.
Let's try something a bit new, and a bit different, and if it doesn't go down very well, or is largely ignored, then meh - fuck it. If it works, and there is some uptake, and a bunch of people that weren't aware of us now at least know, and have a little story to tell about some picture on their fridge that little jimmy drew - then awesome...
People are sick of the same-shit-different-arsehole of all political parties - so yes, whilst we need to stop playing politics and actually do it, let's do it our way, instead of the way that everyone hates.
I would hope that it is clear that this is what I was going for. I want people to make positive associations about the party, I think this can do that. I certainly don't see the actual content of the image being coloured in as overly important (as long as it's fun..), I don't have any market research to base any of this on either, other than the fact that my kids love colouring in stuff like this. Although it might be sensible to have a princess/flower too (Seriously, the gender difference thing? I am starting to think it might be genetic..).
I am not suggesting that we man the stall wearing pirate hats and eyepatches, hell, I want that to be focused on real issues.
Both myself and Andy want the Pirate Party to be a name people recognize and they will recognize us for the wrong reasons by doing gimmicky things like this which will do us very little good, if any at all.
Do you really think that people will walk away from an information stall with a negative or gimicky view because kids are being given colouring pages with pirates on? You don't think it would be seen as a net positive that we are there, available and talking? You don't think that the whole point - the fact that photocopying a colouring book is a breach of copyright without consent - as well as the good will from having that activity, will be all that we are recognized for?
There's plenty of evidence to suggest that our biggest problem is people not having heard of us, not that "people... class us as a joke party." This completely harmless idea will help improve awareness of the party. At the moment, any publicity that's not overwhelmingly negative is good publicity, IMHO.
Yes there is. Whilst I wouldn't neccesarily agree that "Any publicity that's not overwhelmingly negative is good publicity" I really can't see this as being seen as anything other than positive by the public at whom it is aimed, nor can I see it as forming any long term, or even short term views of the party for those concerned. This stall will raise our profile somewhat locally, the colouring is a side issue to that at best and really not what I had hoped would be the focus of this event.
Short of changing the name, we will always be associated with the stereotype regardless of if we like it or not - we might as well use it to our advantage in the few areas that we can.
Actually I think we can break that stereotype with things like this (stall..), the stereotype exists out of ignorance and occasionally out of malice, it is breakable and more importantly the branding element can be used positively when appropriate and ignored at other times.
Just to finish, in the other thread, I asked for anyone to suggest issues that we might want to raise at this event, something to focus on. It is very disheartening to end up in a discussion about whether colouring pictures might 'give the wrong impression' whilst at the same time having had no one actually take on the serious political point and respond.
I would also add that if there is enough strength of feeling about this in the negative then I will quite happily bin this element (or rather, pick some different pictures..) if it appears a consensus exists against it.
Other Suggestions
Cartoon
For some non-pirate imagery that could be coloured in, an adaptation could be made of an old political cartoon from years ago, there was a large dinosaur (kids love dinosaurs, right?) in it that was having its tail slowly cut off, but because it was so large it was slow to react to it. The metaphor could be used in the context of the party policies by having the dinosaur represent some of the large content produces who are slow to react to things like the internet, streaming media, youtube, netflix, etc. Alternatively, you could have a face where the mouth has been covered by some paper (a "super injunction"), either just to be coloured in, or with blank features (hair, nose, eyes) to be filled in separately and coloured. I'm currently trying to think of a child friendly (and easy to colour in) way of representing sharing, will post again if I think of a good image analogy.
I like this. In fact having a dinosaur image would be ideal too! Kids love it. Although I am not sure if the subtle use of this kind of imagery (without other pointers as with political cartoons..) is likely to have any impact. I am not sure as a parent if I wouldn't feel a little odd at one of my kids colouring in a metaphor for a political ideology at a stall run by a political party, even one I liked, it feels a little dirty (probably just me). But a dinosaur is a dinosaur is a dinosaur, and my kids love colouring those things in (although lately it's also been dragons
).
Recipes
I think that recipes cannot be covered by copyright, so some simple ones could be printed off and handed out (or "shared") to be done later with a parent, something like cupcakes, biscuits, chocolate cake, an interesting milkshake/smoothie, etc. This would reinforce the idea that things can still be popular and survive without copyright, and also encourages sharing (of the recipe, and/or of what was created).
Now that is a good idea too. I'm not sure if we can do everything so far suggested, but it is a good point to keep hold of for when it becomes appropriate again. I will try to do some of these as well, but I am going to end up with a stack load of work in presenting them and producing them
Although if anyone wants to take those recipes, tidy them up and drop a PDF to me I will certainly appreciate it.
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