Boris Johnson’s re-election campaign team have released a new attack ad. Johnson’s team were inspired to make the clip when:
“In a four minute interview last week he managed to make at least three false claims. And we don’t know how many potential broken promises.”
Negative ads that use a candidate’s own words against them are very often effective and this is no exception. “Not again Ken” is a great line and one I think we can expect to see a lot more of.
What a very, very canny move.
The Conservative Party have created a satire of party political broadcasts (whilst at the same time delivering not-very-subtle partisan messages) before making a plee for the nation to donate to the East Africa Appeal, a charity helping those suffering from drought in the region.
The broadcast is clever in 3 ways:
1. It defends the Conservative Party’s commitment to increasing overseas aid with reference to a contemporary and worthy cause.
2. It shows the Conservative Party recognise the mendacity of most political broadcasts and as such makes them seem ‘in touch’.
3. The satirical approach enables them to deliver all the key messages, albeit more tongue-in-cheek, that they would usually. e.g. Diverse membership of Tory MPs, economic decline under Labour gov, paucity of credible alternative etc…
(Hat tip: @Ciaranward).
A nicely balanced ppb from the Tories. It follows a fairly standard format – assessment of what went wrong, justification of steps taken thus far and concluding with ambitions for the future.
Cameron’s performance is statesmanlike and confident. The soundtrack brings the film to a nice crescendo, before the end frame – featuring a suitably stoic call to action ‘together in the national interest’ – draws things to a close.
In the weeks before polling day of the last general election, the Conservative Party ran a load of posters on phone boxes to promote their concept of ‘the big society’.
David Cameron’s Conservative Party Conference speech spurred a friend on the inside to send on the other executions in the series which never ran (I notice that the crass ‘Vote Conservative’ logo that ran in the original burst – which I criticised at the time – has been replaced with the Tory tree…).
Last week the Conservative Party released a video entitled ‘Labour’s Legacy’ which set out to remind voters that the massive public sector cuts which are being inflicted by the coalition government are as a direct result of the Labour government’s actions.
There’s no hiding from it, the video is dull. If you’re going to tease and (attempt to) build tension in a video for 1 minute and 15 seconds, the big reveal better be something pretty good. Two words in 3D lettering isn’t exactly mind-blowing.
Advertising industry magazine Campaign have this morning reported that they’ve got hold of 3 videos that were deemed too controversial and edgy to release. The videos were, apparently, made to support the ‘I’ve never voted Tory before, but…’ series of posters.
The videos were sent to Campaign incognito and Euro RSCG, the agency who created the controversial spots, have subsequently threatened legal action if they are released.
I have heard previously that were a number of adverts that had been pulled and have since been desperately trying to get my hands on them. Now that they’ve been anonymously sent to Campaign it can’t be long before they’re uploaded to video sharing sites… How exciting.
The Conservative Party have released a new party election broadcast, featuring a barrister cross-examining Gordon Brown for his supposed crimes against the electorate. It’s a nice idea and the film is well executed with very high production values.
In terms of the strategy, at this stage in the race I’m not convinced that voters need reminding of Gordon’s faults but instead need an excuse to vote for Cameron.
Very good.
(thanks to Roy for sending it on)
Please, please turn up your speakers and click on this link. Oh yes, Greg Knight, Conservative PPC for East Yorkshire, has recorded a song. This is bound to be a viral phenomenon.
A very funny video taking the piss out of Cameron and Osborne’s privileged backgrounds using a re-write of Pulp’s ‘Common People’ track. Great copy writing, appropriate visual imagery and unsurprisingly getting a huge amount of traction online.
