Don’t let him sacrifice your job so he can get a better one

Labour In for Britain, the Labour Party’s campaign to remain in the EU, have been running this graphic as a paid Facebook post for a few weeks now.

It was the first advert of note which used Boris Johnson’s perceived careerism as a reason to vote to remain.

Labour In will see their audience as existing Labour voters and supporters and their task as getting them out to vote, therefore a personal attack on Jonhson with a message about jobs is a potent combination.

Johnson for many in the Labour Party represents the worst of the Conservatives: they see his manner as frustrating and lament his record as Mayor.

Labour supporters also loathe him because they know (even if they try not to admit it) that a Boris Johnson-led Conservative Party would be a formidable opponent in the 2020 general election: swing voters were twice won over by Boris’ charms in London. 

The headline in the advert has a lovely rythm to it and the piece as a whole is very well put together.

There’s a few pieces being written about Stronger In adopting a “take out Boris” strategy in the final weeks.

Personal attacks often backfire and they would do well to make sure that any negative ads targeting Boris are – like this one – linked tightly to an area of policy.