The Thatcher years could also be called the Saatchi  &Saatchi years.  The sophistication of political marketing and presentation reached a level that had never been seen in Britain before.

Margaret Thatcher was the first political leader to employ a professional advertising agency, to blustering disapproval from the Labour Party, and Saatchi & Saatchi took the opportunity with exceptional gusto.

The agency produced what is widely regarded as one of the best posters ever created, not just within the political realm but throughout advertising history, in ‘Labour Isn’t Working’.  But there were many other fantastic posters produced across her three successful general election campaigns in 1979, 1983 and 1987.

This is a leaflet being used by The Conservative Party to attack Lib Dem candidate Mike Thornton in The Battle of Eastleigh by-election that is currently in full swing.

The clip art ‘stop press’ star burst is so hilariously shit that it made this door drop worth sharing.

If you want people to read your election communications, perhaps try writing something eye catching, arresting or amusing in the headline.  You could include an impactful visual.  Or, have some nice, clean art direction which allows your well crafted copy to breath.

Sticking a ‘stop press’ star burst on a your leaflet won’t magically make the electorate want to read what looks like a terminally dull leaflet.

Communications like this (along with the ever-present ‘campaign leaflet dressed up as local newspaper’ trick) really do contribute to the public perception that politicians think the electorate are a bunch of easy-to-manipulate mugs.

Early this week the Conservative Party aired their first party political broadcast of 2013.  As far as these things go, it’s a good one.

They’ve kept it very simple and made a single overarching point very well: ‘you may be under the impression – for whatever reason – that things are not moving in the right direction, but the (selected and likely contestable) facts show your preconceptions are mistaken; the Conservative-led coalition government is doing just fine’.

The Conservative Party have launched a new poster campaign on 6 sites across London to coincide with the House of Commons vote on benefits uprating that takes place today.

The poster starkly points out Labour’s contradictory stance of calling for a freeze on public sector wages, but not on benefit payments.

It’s not the most creative poster in the world, but it’s single-minded and makes a point that is likely to be salient with the majority of the population.

As Dan Hodges writes in The Telegraph:

“For the first time since the Budget, David Cameron is finally managing to get on the front foot on a major political issue. He has boxed Ed Miliband into a corner on both his welfare and public sector pay policies.”

Today seems like a significant victory for The Conservative Party and they’ve cleverly released a poster just to make sure everyone knows about it.

(Here’s the poster as a 6 sheet):

On October 20th a demonstration for a campaign called ‘A Future that Works’ is taking place in central London.  The campaign is being organised by The Trade Union Congress (TUC), is supported by various left wing organisations and is calling for a rethink of the current coalition government’s economic policy.

Ed Miliband, the Leader of The Opposition, has publicly agreed to attend the march.

Given a free choice, undoubtedly, Ed Miliband would not be joining the demonstration.  Polling seems to show that the public think that:

1. Ed Miliband is left-wing.

2.  The Labour Party can’t be trusted with the economy and are obsessed with state spending of borrowed public money.

3.  The trade unions have too firm a grip on the direction of the Labour Party.

With points 1 to 3 in mind, attending this demonstration is possibly the worst tactic that Ed Miliband could employ to improve his chances of winning a general election.

However, as Ed Miliband was effectively handed the leadership of the Labour Party by trade unions votes and that they are also the organisations bankrolling his whole Opposition operation, he has been compelled by union bosses to attend and therefore has little choice in the matter.

Being The Leader of the Opposition of the United Kingdom and being forced to do something that you don’t want to do is pretty embarrassing.  And this hasn’t gone unnoticed by The Conservative Party who have today released ‘Red Ed’s Sponsored Walk‘.

The site has been made to look like a charity donation site that someone who is fundraising might create.  It accuses Ed Miliband of only turning up to march (or Sponsored Walk, as the site refers to it) is to keep his party’s cash flow at an acceptable level.

There’s some lovely little touches in there and this will doubtless by very popular with the Conservative Party faithful.

The Conservative Party have launched its first attack poster on Labour since the last general election and it features the headline ‘Labour isn’t learning’; it intends to highlight the fact that the Institute for Fiscal Studies’ estimates that Labour would borrow £200 billion more than the Conservatives.

I thought I would retort with a short letter to the people who wrote it, designed it and approved it (and can be forwarded to anyone else who is thinking of re-purposing the ‘Labour isn’t working’ poster of 1978 in some shape or form):

Dear Rip-off Merchant,

The reason ‘Labour Isn’t Working’ was a clever line in 1978 is twofold:

1. There was very high unemployment at the time.

2. There was a Labour government who’s policies were criticised for hampering employment.

IT WAS A PLAY-ON-WORDS, A PUN, A DOUBLE EN-F*****G-TENDRE. Your poster does not have this wordplay and so is not clever, funny or impactful.

2 other reasons of note as to why ‘Labour Isn’t Working’ caused such a stir:

- It was the first time a professional ad agency was used to create a piece of British political advertising.

- It was the first time a 48-sheet poster had been used for a piece of political advertising in Britain.

Is your poster – lacking in originality or wit – breaking new ground in any way that is comparable to these either of these two things?  No.  Is adding some cartoon images that have no relationship to the original going to make up for that?  Absolutely not.

It’s been 34 years since ‘Labour Isn’t Working’ was launched – THIRTY FOUR BLOODY YEARS – isn’t it time you came up with something new???

Regards,

Benedict