Commentary on the grubbiest part of the dirtiest business, by Benedict Pringle.
Liz Kendall’s campaign for Labour’s leadership have produced a very good graphic on the eve of members receiving their ballot papers.
The advert neatly encapsulates the main point of her campaign: that the real test of our Labour values isn’t just good intentions in opposition – it’s what can be delivered in government after you’ve won a general election.
There’s been relatively few examples of creativity in the the Labour Leadership 2015 campaign, so this is a real breath of FRESH air.
Comedian Jo Brand stars in the Labour Party’s latest election broadcast which puts the spotlight on the Conservative Party’s record on the NHS.
This is exactly what a party election broadcast should be.
1. It’s single-minded.
2. The language used by the talent feels vaguely authentic.
3. The delivery isn’t forced.
By keeping the production within the confines of a studio they’ve been able to invest the production money available into cameras and lighting, which means it has a high quality look and feel.
And in order to prevent the viewer getting bored of just seeing someone talking at them down the barrel, there’s a sort of ‘behind-the-scenes’ style which gives an excuse to cut away from the talent from time to time.
Very good.
Labour’s campaign seems to be picking up speed and confidence in the final straight.
The Labour Party have released a new video which borrows various techniques from the US Democrat Rapid Response unit, including:
– recordings made secretly at the opposition’s events
– interviews of minor opposition politicians being off-message as evidence against the mainstream of the party
– splicing small snippets of an opposition leader’s speech and using it in another context
– cartoon-style illustrations and a musical score reminiscent of a slapstick comedy
The attack lines used are on point and well structured. The borrowed content and visual effects work well together. The voice over and audio mix, however, sounds cheaply done and impacts the production value disproportionately.
Nevertheless, as this one is likely aimed at motivating party activists (hence the donation request at the conclusion) it’s pretty good. The viewer is left dumbfounded about how David Cameron seems to have changed almost nothing about the party he inherited from Michael Howard.
David Miliband has released a video to try and woo the Labour Party membership to support his campaign. He makes education the focus of the video and manages to strike the balance between intellect and ‘man-of-the-people’ perfectly.
The sound bite “we are all equal on polling day” and pointing out the party will have to come back together once the leadership battle is over, were both highlights for me; the name-checking of Obama and the Kennedy ‘drop a pebble in a pond’ quotation were lows.
I imagine his detractors would have felt that the musical score and ‘looking to the horizon’ end frame was over-the-top, but for the less cynical it would have probably achieved the emotional connection that was desired.
The Labour Party have released some animated videos to accompany their manifesto. They’re very cute and convey the policy messages simply, yet without being patronising or irritating. Not easy to do.
Granted, it’s not the most exciting thing in the world to watch. However, one of the key metrics that brands and political parties alike strive to perform well in during market research is “this brand / party is meant for people like me”.
This communication has the sort of universal appeal that gets lots of people ticking that box.
This is the 2nd poster I entered for the Labour Party’s ‘peoples poster’ competition. Any criticism will be treated with hyper-sensitivity and righteous indignation.
The Labour Party’s ‘create our next ad’ competition has now closed. The winner is to be revealed on the weekend, but they have posted a few of their favourites on their homepage for now.
There were over 1000 entries and it seems like the quality is very high. I’m quite chuffed that they are featuring one of my submissions (above) as one of their favourites. I’m not sure that it’s strategically very strong and I wish I had time to shoot some shoes as oppose to grabbing what I could find online.
The hypocrisy of someone called Benedict who works in advertising accusing someone else of having had a privileged upbringing also can’t go without apology.
I’ll post the winner along with the rest of my scamps next week.
