The hoo-haa of an election poster

By Sarah MacKinlay

It was an astonishing sight that first glimpse I caught of a dewy eyed David Cameron, lips pursed, staring pensively into the lens and deep to our souls. And beside this a (metaphoric) speech bubble with the rather desperate phrase “we can’t go on like this, I’ll cut the deficit not the NHS”. Any PR guru worth their salt will tell you, it’s not a very sophisticated message.

The solemn face, the forlorn eyes, the negative and clunky use of words – even Daniel Finkelstein was forced to concede on Newsnight, earlier in the week, that the choice of words was not the best. Also on Newsnight was Peter Hyman, who said placing the words ‘NHS’ and ‘cuts’ within the same sentence is a bad idea, because anyone who catches a quick glimpse will put the words together and assume that’s what the line is, particularly because it’s a Tory poster and they have form in this area.

It was an odd decision for the Tories to go with this message; presumably they had others and had focus grouped their messages. Their machine is so sophisticated, and I at least regard it to be rather slick, so why did they use such a defensive line as “I’ll cut the deficit, not the NHS”? It makes an assumption that everyone thinks this is what a Conservative government would do, thereby necessitating a pre-emptive rebuttal.

The poster should offer a ‘change message’ and reassurance, such as the infamous 1997 clincher “Things can Only get Better”. That slogan pivoted into a positive message that created hope and aspiration for all those disillusioned with the then incumbent executive.

By last night, following the Hewitt/Hoon hoo-haa, the Conservative machine had come up with (what it considered to be) a tongue-in-cheek play on its own message with an image of Geoff Hoon and Patricia Hewitt standing beside the line which read, ‘We Really Can’t go on Like This.’ But what this witty take on current events will achieve is limited – indeed there is a constituency of thought that believes this, along with Hoon/Hewitt gate, will give Brown a bounce, even if it’s a temporary one.

The point is that great propoganda doesn’t always achieve great results. Posters and TV are important, but you can attach disproportionate emphasis upon them. ‘Kinnock the Movie’, made for the 1987 election, was a groundbreaking film made with Lord Puttnam, but it didn’t achieve the result the party desperately needed.

In recent years the Conservative Party have not had a particularly good record with their posters, although the 1975 Saatchi and Saatchi campaign was a huge success, it must be said. The dole cue, the bleakness, the line: ‘Labour isn’t Working.’ That phrase worked because it was sophisticated and the message very simple. Their next effort in this mammoth campaign has to be far better, with a smarter message, than the current poster offers.

Sarah MacKinlay is director of Journalista, a political communications consultancy.

Photo, hat-tip Virtual Economics via Paul Waugh.