The use of images from Russia in an election TV ad promoting job creation in Ontario is simply the nature of the modern advertising beast, the Progressive Conservatives said Tuesday.
While Tory Leader Tim Hudak did not immediately comment, a party spokesman said he had no idea where the footage came from but defended the commercial as current practice.
“This is the way advertising works in the 21st century: You buy stock footage from a website, you get what you need, put it into your ad _ whether it’s video or photos _ and you pump it out,” said Will Stewart, the party’s media director.
“It’s the way it works in a web-based, technology-based world.”
Part of the TV spot – called “Ontario Working Better” – features Hudak himself touting his job-creation plan over video of office workers at a computer screen.
Another shot shows teens reading in a classroom.
Both sets of images, according to the Ottawa Citizen, are sourced from a stock footage agency and come from Russia.
Stewart accused the Liberals of playing “gotcha” politics by planting the story.
“We prefer to be talking about jobs,” Stewart said.
NDP Leader Andrea Horwath said she had not seen the commercial and refused to discuss it.
Liberal Premier Kathleen Wynne did not immediately comment either but a party spokesperson called the Tories’ claim “baseless and totally false.”
