Originally posted 16.50 – Updated 18.19

DON’T YOU JUST hate when you come up with a brilliant slogan – and it turns out to be exactly the same as your rival’s?

Give or take a comma and a full stop, Irish presidential hopefuls Gay Mitchell and Mary Davis’s campaign teams have managed to come up with the EXACT same message to voters.

Fine Gael’s Mitchell’s website and flyers – which were much in evidence at the Fine Gael think-in this week in Galway – carry the banner slogan:

PRIDE AT HOME, RESPECT ABROAD.

Independent would-be candidate Mary Davis has just gone live with her posters, site and leaflets which read:

Pride at Home. Respect Abroad.

A source tells TheJournal.ie that the slogan for the Davis campaign was mentioned at least as far back as a meeting three weeks ago. Mitchell has had his site live since 26 August – although his campaign team could not confirm if that slogan was at the top of it from the very beginning.

However, a spokesperson for Mitchell’s team told TheJournal.ie this evening that the slogan was “something that we have been using for quite a while”. The spokesperson said:

We distributed the leaflets at the PP (parliamentary party) meeting this week and the literature went through the whole creative process, printing, distribution.

A spokesperson for the Mary Davis campaign said they had to format their new posters “weeks ago” and pointed out that the slogan had not been present in Gay Mitchell’s original campaign press pack, distributed to media on 23 August last. The spokesperson also said that the slogan had been officially used before today – it had been on an ad printed in the Sligo Champion. While the Champion hit the streets yesterday, the ad had to be submitted days earlier. (see bottom of article for the ad).

TheJournal.ie made contact with the designers of Mitchell’s campaign site, a company called ExSite Communications. They said that they were constantly making tweaks to the site but that the masthead – with the slogan – is the same one that has been there at the end of its first week going live in late August. There are two different mastheads available – one with and one without – but he said: “As it is now, is how it was then.”

The Mitchell campaign spokesperson said that the slogan had been “on the table” with them “over the last couple of months”, beginning as early as July. She added:

I just heard about it (the Davis slogan) myself a few minutes ago. They do say that imitation is the best form of flattery.

TheJournal.ie received a statement from the Davis campaign which read:

Pride at home, and respect abroad, is what Mary has been talking about since she launched her campaign in May – long before Gay Mitchell was even a candidate. This slogan was chosen by the campaign as it encapsulates what she stands for and what she wants to do with the Presidency, focusing on repairing Ireland’s reputation abroad whilst helping regain pride in our country and in what we can achieve together.

Mary’s campaign has posters designed and printed, which takes significant time, and adverts have already appeared in print in local media using the slogan.

The Davis slogan:

The Mitchell slogan:

The Mary Davis ad already published in the Sligo Champion:

The Gay Mitchell website masthead comes in two versions…

WITH the slogan:

…and WITHOUT (But his website designer says the first one has been a constant since late August):