Monthly Archives: February 2009

Honest Food

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A very funny and compelling video promoting honest labelling of food, produced by the Conservative Party.  They’ve followed the tried and tested formula of “something is much funnier when said in a Dutch accent”.  It wouldn’t surprise me if this became popular amongst the foodie /farmer blogosphere. 

It’s really impressive that with nearly every policy announcement and campaign the Conservative Party are producing original and usually fairly interesting political advertising.  The more they practice producing political communication like this (that’s not meant to sound patronising, managing the making of videos / animatics is a skill which requires practice) the more adept they will be at putting out rapid response, high quality content when it matters – at general election time.

Put People First

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Put People First

Put People First

I just came across this poster for Put People First, an umbrella campaign for a huge number of organisations lobbying across a variety of policy issues.  The campaign is trying to get people to march in London on March 28th ahead of the G20 summit on April 2nd.

There are any number of campaigns organising events that relate to the issues being addressed by this organisation throughout the year, but what makes this one stand out is the awesome poster design.  The vibrant colours and the focus on people’s feet are particularly appealing.

The website is also clean, simple and effective – the only obvious thing lacking is the ability to sign up for email updates (that mind sound a bit 1998, but ask anyone in the travel industry – possibly the most competitive of all online markets – and they’ll tell you about the importance of email as marketing tool).

Plumbing and Politics

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obama and plumberNo, you’re eyes don’t decieve you.  This is the most tenuous bastardisation of Obama’s campaign yet.  The advertisement for plumbing, guttering and decay repair (amongst others) came through my front door this morning.  It is particularly amusing given the deployment of ‘Joe the Plumber’ by John McCain as an example of how Obama’s economic policies would be to the detriment of small business.

David Cameron has aluded to the tedium of the every political party, business, man and his dog trying to learn the lessons of Obama’s success.  That having been said, on Thursday night I went to a really good event featuring Matthew McGregor (of Blue State Digital) and Tom Miller on the very subject of learning online lessons from across the pond, hosted by Compass.

They rightly highlighted that a central aim of political communication via the internet is to provoke an action from the reciever.  Be it to donate money, time or simply to pass it on to a friend.  The concept of advertising  – political or not – being an active process is not a new one.  But few organisations have genuinely internalised the fact that the internet enables immediate reaction and that therefore a siginificant part of any online message should be prompting such an instant response.

If you’ve reached this post via a search engine and are looking for a West London handyman, I’d hate for your first visit to be a disappointment:

West London Handyman, political chit-chat not included.

West London Handyman, political chit-chat not included.

Government advertising or propaganda?

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A really interesting article about the thin line between advertising government legislation and the ruling party disseminating propaganda.  In this particular case, Liam Byrne wants to promote the Government’s anti-recession measures in an umbrella campaign.  Given the fact that there is by no means consensus on this agenda – it’s not exactly a drink driving campaign – it would be borderline to say the least.

Labour List Bloggers Breakfast

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I went to the Labour List launch event this morning which took the form of a ‘bloggers breakfast’; the above video was played out prior to Mandelson speaking.  As well as Mandelson, there was a range of speakers all asserting the case for the Labour Party being the party of new media. 

 

A more informal format that allowed the congregation of bloggers and politicians to converse would have been far more useful and exciting.  What’s the point in gathering an element of the bloggersphere if you’re going to simply give them pastries and talk at them? It felt very broadcast and not very social.

 

Peter Mandelson highlighted that the most important factor in winning the battle of ideas in online political communication was having the most interesting / humorous / inspiring content.  As has been pointed out on this blog before, the Labour Party have not produced any decent content since the advent of web 2.0.  I have never forwarded on anything the Labour Party has produced to any ‘non-political’ friends of mine, as if I did, they would think I was  terminally dull. 

 

This is the party’s biggest challenge: coming up with a big, compelling, believable idea which inspires party supporters to start producing diverse political advertising that people will be willing to send on to the ‘undecided’ masses.

 

 

 

Ready to Bank your Savings

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Go Fourth’s campaign to get RBS to give up their bonuses has really got up a head of steam, with over 8000 people signing an online petition in a few days.

They’re not helped by the fact that their campaign has no arresting visual material, online or offline.  However I like the fact that they obviously decided this was a great campaign to run and didn’t hang around talking about or making it perfect, they just shoved it out there.

In political advertising the idea is everything,  the execution – provided it’s not so shabby it’s painful to engage with - is very much secondary.

UPDATE:  They’ve got a logo! The use of the ‘£’ to insight negative connotational cues is slightly misguided as, after all, RBS are a bank and ‘£’ are their business.  But it’s a logo nonetheless and it will help the virility of the campaign.

give up the bonus

New Media Box-Ticking

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new media and politics

Kevin Coyne is having a go at using new media to promote his candidacy in the upcoming Unite Union General Secretary elections.  However, like the worst sort of political speeches, it feels slightly ‘box ticky’; almost like it’s going through the motions.  There’s no passion and enthusiasm emerging from any of the political advertising.  You can use new media as much as you like, but the media will always be secondary to the style and inspiration of the communication – which in this case is lacking.

It’s like his campaign manager has gone to a ‘how to campaign like Obama’ event and gathered that in order to win an election all you have to do is: use the word ‘Change’ in your slogan, have a blog, make online donation easy, start a facebook group and have literature to download and pass on.

Don’t get me wrong, using these media channels is essential in an election campaign, but that doesn’t change the fact that the message you’re communicating via these channels has to be motivating and coherent as well as look appealing and attractive.  You can use all the new media channels in the world, if you’re communication looks and reads as boring and amateur as this (below) nobody is going to want to engage with it.

now do you see why I put it at the bottom of the article.

now do you see why I put it at the bottom of the article.

Peta Political Advert Banned

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The above commercial for Peta was banned from being aired during the Super Bowl in order to avoid causing offense to the American public.  Well it offended me, not because of its sexual nature, but because it is so completely crap.

If an organisation is serious about making people ‘Go Veg’, as oppose to grubby headline grabbing, there is any number of compelling rational and emotional messages to communicate.  Saying ‘Veggies have better sex’ and then not even trying to back it up is so ridiculously pathetic that I can’t believe a supposedly serious organisation paid to have it made.