{"id":199459,"date":"2025-10-09T04:11:22","date_gmt":"2025-10-09T04:11:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/199459\/"},"modified":"2025-10-09T04:11:22","modified_gmt":"2025-10-09T04:11:22","slug":"wa-council-elections-city-of-melville-candidate-uses-isla-fisher-as-part-of-advertising-in-bid-for-votes","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/199459\/","title":{"rendered":"WA council elections: City of Melville candidate uses Isla Fisher as part of advertising in bid for votes"},"content":{"rendered":"

They\u2019re on verges everywhere \u2014 signs for October 18\u2019s local government elections with the ubiquitous head and shoulders shots and message exhorting people to get off their chairs and cast their votes.<\/p>\n

But one candidate is eschewing the traditional corflutes and taking a different approach to try to cut through the indifference that usually surrounds council elections.<\/p>\n

Simon Barry is a lawyer seeking election in the City of Melville\u2019s Applecross-Mt Pleasant ward.<\/p>\n

Instead of the passport photo-style approach to his campaign materials, he has taken to graphic designs that barely feature his face and mostly feature the colour pink.<\/p>\n

One design even features Australian actor Isla Fisher on a mock-up magazine cover enticing viewers to find out more about Mr Barry.<\/p>\n

\"SimonCamera IconSimon Barry used Isla Fisher in one piece of advertising. Credit: Supplied<\/p>\n

He said he had prioritised digital posters on sites such as Reddit, YouTube and Facebook rather than traditional advertising.<\/p>\n

Mr Barry said he hoped this different approach would get more people interested in council elections.<\/p>\n

\"SomeCamera IconSome of the election ads on Simon Barry’s website. Credit: Supplied<\/p>\n

\u201cMany of our younger community aren\u2019t involved in council elections. A healthy council needs a good representation of all demographics,\u201d Mr Barry said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s an opportunity to reach community members who haven\u2019t been engaging with council elections, in particular the under-40 age group, (by using) artwork that is interesting and eye-catching to a broader audience, to look less like a regular council election poster, challenging the idea that council elections are boring.\u201d<\/p>\n

Another election candidate in Melville is taking a more casual approach, with Bicton-Attadale-Alfred Cove ward candidate Michael McGoldrick\u2019s signs encouraging people to \u201cVote for Macca\u201d.<\/p>\n

Social media posts feature him miming playing the guitar and drums to the song Wipe Out.<\/p>\n

\"OneCamera IconOne of the few ads featuring Mr Barry’s face. Credit: Supplied<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"They\u2019re on verges everywhere \u2014 signs for October 18\u2019s local government elections with the ubiquitous head and shoulders…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":199460,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[64,63,134,135,124827,44,46,84,8080,45],"class_list":["post-199459","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-entertainment","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-entertainment","tag-local-government","tag-melville","tag-news","tag-perth","tag-politics","tag-south","tag-wa-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/199459","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=199459"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/199459\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/199460"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=199459"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=199459"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=199459"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}