But others, including most critics, saw it as a blatant and clumsy effort to cash in on a recognizable title.

Republicans have reacted angrily in recent days to what they assert is a blatant effort by Democrats to capitalize on the confusion.

"It's not a blatant effort to bypass the media," Mr. Doke said.

Gabriel occasionally withheld information in a blatant effort to teach them a lesson.

This smells, looks, walks, talks and acts like a blatant partisan effort.

And in a blatant effort to lure actors back to the academy, it proposed introducing the category of "supporting" actor and actress.

Police officials said the killing appeared to be retaliation for John Veasey's defection and a blatant effort to intimidate him as a witness.

"Hmph," she said, with scorn for this blatant effort to placate her.

It is a relatively straightforward task for legislators to ban blatant efforts to favor one group over another and encourage equality of opportunity as a result.

Hamas rejected early parliamentary elections as illegal, saying they would be a blatant effort to overturn their majority, won in free elections 11 months ago.