I went to a talk by adland guru Trevor Beattie last night at an event held by Monkey Shoulder Whisky. He covered everything from space travel, to the new very amusing Walls Sausages work but the main thrust of the speech was overtly political. Beattie, whilst at TBWA, was in charge of the Labour Party’s advertising during the last 3 general elections (example above) and his work has to be given an, albeit small, share of the credit for the party’s electoral success.
He lambasted the party political broadcasts that have been subjected on the electorate recently and stated that the Labour Party would need to significantly up their communications game if they want to succeed in the upcoming general election. However, Beattie no longer controls the Labour Party’s communications fortunes, as when Gordon Brown came to power he awarded Saatchi & Saatchi the account. However, I got the distinct impression that Beattie was itching to get back into the political advertising fold…
