REGINA - Saskatchewan NDP television ads attacking the Opposition may be porn for political junkies in more ways than one.
The Saskatchewan Party is outraged that as the words Privatization of the Crowns dissolve in one part of the ad, the letters P, O, R, and N stay up a second longer than the rest.
A letter T also remains above the N, but Saskatchewan Party member Nancy Heppner says the word porn is clearly spelled out.
Taken with the phrase "Sask Party Stood For'' above the letters, the implication is that the Opposition stands for porn, Heppner said.
"If it's intentional, it's despicable,'' Heppner said. "They are accusing us of being in favour of pornography and I just think that's below any kind of standards for an election campaign.''
The ads should be pulled, Heppner said.
"I think it would be the right thing to do. Obviously we are political adversaries but I have a hard time believing that they would want to keep this on the air now that it is obvious to people that it is there.''
NDP provincial secretary Doug Still said it wasn't intentional.
"The production house here in Regina has a computer program which generated the ad,'' Still said. "It's random evaporation of the letters. It cannot be interfered with by human beings.''
Still said he doesn't see anything wrong with the ads, which attempt to paint the right-leaning Saskatchewan Party as a wolf in sheep's clothing when it comes to maintaining public medicare and public ownership of the provincial utilities.
"For a party that has a hidden agenda, it would not be a surprise that they would find hidden messages in our ads,'' Still said.
The campaign was launched last week, before what is widely expected to be a fall election call.
Since the ads came out, the Saskatchewan Party has been unequivocal about its backing of publicly funded health care and continued public ownership of the utilities.
It's not the first time text in television ads has created problems for political parties in Saskatchewan.
In 2006, Saskatchewan Party leader Brad Wall was red-faced when he was forced to explain why Saskatchewan was misspelled -- without the letter e -- in one of his party's TV ads.
