Regular readers will know that, despite the huge number of permutations, there are only really two election campaign slogans:

1) The Opposition Slogan: Time for a change

2) The Incumbent Slogan: We’re doing ok, don’t let them ruin it

Coming up with the most appropriate and most powerful phrasing of one of these two slogans is not easy, but nevertheless, 99% of all election slogans will fit into one of these two categories.

Obama has, sensibly, not tried to reinvent the wheel and has instead obviously spent some time coming up with his take on The Incumbent slogan.

‘Forward’ works very well.

It’s a neat distillation of The Incumbent’s campaign.  It’s broad enough to sit over the vast array of policy positions he will take. It’s simple enough for people to grasp.  It gives his whole campaign a sense of purpose and momentum.  And, crucially, he’s able to use his Obama ‘O’ logo as one of the letters of the slogan.

‘Forward’ also tacitly insinuates that his opponent, Mitt Romney, is ‘Backward’.  Though the Republicans have tried to devalue the slogan – “Forward and straight of a cliff, more like, *chuckle chuckle*” – but the reality of it is that the phrase is quite hard to appropriate for piss-taking.

‘Forward’ feels like a natural and sensible progression from his 2008 slogan ‘Hope’ and I would guess that his advocates will be equally eager to adopt it and use it for their own 3rd party promotional materials; an element of the campaign which was essential to Obama’s success in ’08.

The Argentinian government have released a piece of propaganda in advance of the London 2012 Olympic Games; how satisfying to be able to use that word in its actual sense rather than as a piece of linguistic hyperbole.

The video shows Argentine hockey captain Fernando Zylberberg running and exercising in the Falklands capital Port Stanley ahead of London 2012 and carries the end line “To compete on English soil, we train on Argentine soil.”

Punchy.

The ad is shot in the style of a ‘Rocky’ film and will no doubt get the nationalist juices flowing for both British and Argentine populations.

The non-party political Sack Boris campaign have been really impressive throughout the London Mayoral campaign.

They’ve produced a huge amount of content and I’ve no doubt that they’ve had a tangible impact on the discourse and eventual outcome of the race.

Above is the ‘How to Sack Boris’ leaflet that I was handed this morning at Kensal Green station.  It tries to simply breakdown the steps necessary to evict the incumbent candidate.

To be honest, they’ve made it seem slightly more difficult than necessary, but I suppose just writing “don’t put mark anywhere near Boris’ name or anything else which features the Conservative Party logo” would have been a blunt.

I’ve written previously about the Sack Boris campaigns ‘Boris Isn’t Working’ posters.  Below are a couple of iterations that have been released since then:

Ken Livingstone’s campaign have released a new poster which accuses Boris Johnson and his Conservative Party colleagues George Osborne and David Cameron as being blue aliens from another planet.

The aim of the poster is to link Boris Johnson’s policies in London with those of the government.  This is a sensible strategy, as recent polls have shown that the national party’s actions seem to be having an impact on voter intention in the capital.

I don’t love this poster.

The headline and visuals are neither funny, clever or particularly cutting for an attack poster.  It just feels a bit flat.

If the message you want to convey is “These Tories are a bunch of posh boys and they don’t know what real life is like”, why not say that in the most punchy or amusing way you can?

This feels more like Labour are blowing a raspberry rather than giving a sucker punch.

UPDATE *** Here’s the high resolution version that ran in today’s Metro

Team Obama have released a rebuttal video focusing on international affairs.

This approach, where Romney’s attacks on the President are spliced with footage of Obama contradicting him, has been deployed a few times already in this campaign.  It’s an effective mechanic for lampooning Romney.  It makes the Republican candidate seem at best ill-informed and at worst a liar.

This video culminates in a very emotive speech defending American values.  This is a lovely touch.

Most effective pieces of communication use a combination of ‘desire’ and ‘permission’.  The early part of this video – the factual rebuttal – are all about giving people the logical permission to endorse Obama.  And the last 30 seconds deliver the desire beautifully.

Very nice.

Campaign group American Crossroads have released a video which acknowledges that Obama is thought to be pretty cool, but then goes on to highlight issues some of the perceived problems with his presidency.

This ‘biggest celebrity in the world‘ was a fruitful line of attack for McCain in the last Presidential election.  Except this time, Obama’s critics have got a powerful ‘reason to believe’ in the fact that the economy hasn’t bounced back.  Expect to see many more ads in this vein.

The Coalition For Equal Marriage have produced a video to promote changing laws around same sex marriage.

The short film shows British forces returning home to greet their loved ones, with the reunion of one male soldier and his male partner soon turning into a surprise marriage proposal.

The video highlights that people have the right to serve in British military regardless of sexuality, but are not currently able to celebrate their love and commitment with civil marriage.

The video is nicely put together and, whilst it’s on the cheesy side of things, seems to have got a decent amount of traction after only a couple of days.  Supporters are encouraged to use the hashtag #equalmarriage.

BETC London, the creative agency behind Ken Livingstone’s infamous party election broadcast, have released an advert for their agency in this week’s advertising trade press.  The ad features Ken crying and carries the end line “we also move products”.

Very good indeed.

Ken Livingstone was moved to tears at the launch of the broadcast created by BETC, saying: “It’s an appalling responsibility… the people you saw on the screen represent hundreds of thousands of Londoners who desperately want a mayor who is going to make their life easier in this city.”

The ad is perhaps to draw a line under some of the mainstream media and Westminster Villages’ (over) reaction to the broadcast and remind any clients reading the trade press that BETC is a very capable creative agency.

Cancer Research have released a new video calling for signatures to a petition that seeks to remove branding from cigarette packaging.

The ad shows a group of 10-year-old children discussing cigarette boxes, to illustrate how young people are affected by the different colours and designs.

The film concludes with the thought: “Unbranding cigarette packs won’t stop everyone from smoking, but it will give millions of kids one less reason to start”.

I can’t comment neutrally, as this was made by my agency, but I found it incredibly impactful.  It’s a clever advertising idea, based on solid research that suggests cigarette packaging is attractive to young people.

By using children as the creative vehicle, it enables adults who “know better than to fall for some pretty colours on a cardboard box” to support the campaign, as they can feel they’re acting for kids who they perceive to be more vulnerable to brands than themselves.

Finally!  A decent piece of video content for one of the candidates for London Mayor (although Paddick’s official campaign claim to have had nothing to do with it).

The NightMayor attacks Boris Johnson for his percieved absence during the 2011 London Riots and his purported culprability for issues surrounding News of The World links with the Metropolitcan Police.

The film concludes with a piece of positive messaging around Brian Paddick, the Liberal Democrat candidate, and leaves viewers with the damning end line “jokes aren’t funny the second time around”.

The video carries a simply and effective narrative by professionally putting together  existing footage of both Boris Johnson and the Lib Dem candidate.  Yes, the ‘movie-trailer-as-political-ad’ has been done to death, but if it’s done well it can be very impactful.

Whoever’s pulled this together has obviously had some experience in production and, my word, doesn’t it show.  Paddick’s campaign is having a strong back straight!