The design of a new PL logo, which many party supporters are using as their Facebook picture profile, has practically been copied from a US Democrats logo used in the run up to the 4 November presidential election.

In a bid to convince more people to vote for the Labour Party in Saturday’s European parliament election, Labour’s education secretary Aaron Farrugia posted a message on the wall of the PL Facebook group on Monday afternoon, urging people to use the logo as their picture profile on the social utility site.

Of course the election date, the name of the party, and the colour used in the two logos is different, as is the motto, but essentially, the design and concept are the same.

The PL doesn’t hope to “change the world” like US President Barack Obama’s Democrats, but rather, the party’s message is that people’s vote “can accomplish success”.

Obama also seems to have been quite an inspiration to PL leader Joseph Muscat, who has been using similar statements to the US president’s.

“PL action plan: towards a better day”, for instance, is clearly inspired from Obama’s motto “Hope of a better day” and “US will see a better day”.

But the Labour Party isn’t the only culprit of, shall we say, ‘borrowing’ certain elements from foreign political campaigns.

Alternattiva Demokratika has also been using one of Obama’s main slogans “Yes we can”, and everyone remembers the slogan that the PN copied from French President Nicolas Sarkozy’s presidential campaign.

In the run up to the 2007 French presidential election, Sarkozy used the slogan “Together everything is possible” (“Ensemble tout devient possible”).

A year later, the PN used “Yes, together everything is possible” (“Iva, flimkien kollox possibli”) as its main slogan, and a very similar billboard design to the one that featured Sarkozy.



fvella@independent.com.mt