Australian Labor leader Rudd marches to Mao tune

0 Comments | AFP, October, 2007

SYDNEY (AFP) — Australian opposition leader Kevin Rudd, tipped to be the country's next prime minister, appears to have shaken off his image as cartoon character Tintin or a blond Harry Potter.

The round-faced Rudd, 50, has instead been depicted as China's revolutionary leader Mao Zedong in a satirical take on the Australian election campaign which has become a hit on the Internet, with nearly 25,000 viewings in five days.

The three-minute clip, presented as a rejected advertising angle for the Mandarin-speaking Rudd, relates a fictional biography in which he founded a lucrative cleaning products business and spent five years on the moon.

The Chinese propaganda-style video focuses on Labor leader Rudd's tendency to agree with his opponent, 68-year-old Prime...