New Conservative ads aimed at older men show golfers, Harper but no Poilievre

The Conservatives are using the final week of the election campaign to run advertisements where older men are telling other older men to vote for the party — a closing argument that would have been unthinkable only months ago, political advertising experts say.

In new television ads that are airing regularly during the heavily watched NHL playoffs, the Conservatives are playing one spot in which two seniors are golfing and discussing how tough life is for their children, and another where former prime minister Stephen Harper endorses Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre. 

Neither commercial shows images of Poilievre.

"We're living in an upside-down world this campaign. Voters that were bedrock Conservative voters in the Harper era now need to be won over. And these are the boomers, 50-plus males," said Dennis Matthews, president of Creative Currency and a former advertising adviser to Harper.

The Conservatives are continuing to trail the Liberals in a majority of polls less than a week before election day. 

In the 30-second golfing ad, two older men are having a conversation at a driving range. One man, while practising his swing, acknowledges his son "can't seem to get ahead," while the other, standing nearby, says he had to pay for his daughter's down payment.

The second man tries to convince his golfing buddy that Liberal Leader Mark Carney won't solve this problem. 

"Come on, do you really think that a fourth Liberal term is going to change anything?" he asks.

"You know, I've been thinking the same thing," the first man says. 

Matthews said the ad speaks to the Conservatives pushing for change as the ballot-box question, all while specifically targeting older men. 

"It's a literal expression of the discussion that they want these voters to be having," he said.

Dan Arnold, who was director of research and advertising for former prime minister Justin Trudeau, said the ads are unlike anything the Conservatives have run under Poilievre's leadership.

"All their advertising really for the past two years has been very Poilievre-centric. It has been him as the narrator, him as the star of the ads," Arnold said.

Earlier in the campaign, one Conservative ad was voiced by Poilievre over images of himself and his supporters at rallies, along with scenic views of Canada.