Nate Newell.
Nate Newell, a mechanic at the Star Garage on Sydney's Northern Beaches, used the federal election to launch a guerrilla campaign as a political candidate in the Mona Vale electorate.
The signage, which follows the traditional candidate poster formatting, presented Newell as an advocate for dogs, heavy metal and fixing cars.
Newell told AdNews the campaign was brought on by one very simple mandate, to do a better job.
“And from that genius idea came the birth of the Nate Newell, Member for MV,” Newell said.
The AEC has no power to remove electoral signs outside of six metres of a polling booth, despite Newell not being a legitimate candidate.
It remains lawful to lie in a political advertisement under Australian law.
Ad Standards received more than 1,000 complaints within weeks on political advertising. But reception to Star Garage's lighter approach to political advertising steered to the positive.
A segment on the ABC's Gruen Nation and exposure across social media platforms Instagram and Facebook proved that the public was paying attention.
“(the) public really fell in love with the hard-working honest Larrikin as opposed to the truth twisting emperor of lies, we have now,” Newell said.
Star Garage is a service centre in Mona Vale specialising in vehicle service, repair and maintenance.
Newell said there has been a rise in services/repair bookings since the campaign, but to how much is uncertain.
“Cars aren’t drinks. They bring them in as required,” Newell said.
Newell will be seen again "really soon" and at the next election, ‘Nate ’28.’
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