£500 IN CASH AND PRIZES UP FOR GRABS!

At a public 'meet the candidates' event in Guildford (Surrey) this week, the 'impartial' organisers tried to keep a certain subject off the agenda, and even lied when confronted about it (claiming that no questions had been submitted when at least half-a-dozen had). We feel that this is an increasingly common problem in the campaigning environment and in the media. And we've had enough of it.

Backing Blair is announcing a special competition with over £500 in cash and prizes for people who actually get off their arse and take the word to the streets. Literally. You may enter by distributing our posters and/or stickers (and documenting your adventures), or you may choose to simply take one word and get it in front of as many eyeballs as possible.

That word is:

IRAQ

We want this word to appear on walls, in windows, on roads and on vehicles. We want it to appear near homes, shops and polling stations. We want to make sure that nobody can turn away from what is, for many people, the single most important issue of this election.

Some quick ideas:
- Write 'Iraq' on walls and pavements with chalk
- Mow the word 'Iraq' into the side of a hill
- Get some A4/label sheets from your local stationery supplier and make some stickers
- Print 'Iraq' onto A4 sheets 4-8 times, cut the sheets into squares, and then do a mini-pamphlet drop in your street
- Do the same thing, except print and cut into rectangles, and slip a few hundred 'bookmarks' into place at your local public library
- Write 'Iraq' across the boobs of the Page 3 girl in your local pub's copy of The Sun
- Use a business card machine to make 50 'Iraq' cards and leave them in random locations
- Write 'Iraq' in the dust on the back of a lorry
- Whenever you pass a candidate being filmed, yell 'Iraq'
- Go down to the beach and carve 'Iraq' into the sand again and again and again
- Erect a little memorial-site on the side of the motorway and label it 'Iraq'
- Call your local talkback show and when they put you on air, abandon your phoney question, say 'Iraq!' and then hang up
- Go around town writing 'QARI' everywhere, and let people work it out for themselves
- And, finally, you might want to share this special message for candidates with your friends and neighbours:



Put. This. Word. Everywhere.

Take photos and/or document what you've done. You can send the results to us by email (via photos@backingblair.co.uk - just previews are fine if you have large files and/or a lot of them) or put them up on your own weblog. You will need to be able to prove that it's you behind it all to claim your prize(s), after all.

Entries will be judged on legality, ingenuity, impact and reach.

All UK citizens are eligible to enter. Prizes are as follows:

1st Prize - £250 cash and a giant 3x6 metre 'No Alternative' poster (the ultimate campaign souvenir from our Backing Blair truck)

2nd Prize - £100 cash and a 'No Alternative' t-shirt

3rd Prize - £50 cash and a case of chardonnay

Entries close at midnight on Thursday the 5th of May, but we need you to start now. As in right now. Start thinking and get moving. Good luck to you all.

Iraq.

Iraq.

Iraq. Iraq. Iraq.

Oh, or our posters and/or stickers.

But preferably the single word 'Iraq'.

Iraq. Iraq. Iraq.

Word.