That was the election that was
I have put together a few thoughts on the role of communications in the recent UK general election campaign. Given that we saw it from the inside.
At some point I will get round to adding in all the examples and links but have this to be getting on with.
For some strange reason when I uploaded this to slideshare it duplicated the 'that was' on the title slide. Weird.
Big society my arse
David Cameron's big society is as close to a way over complicated planning thought as you get in politics - intellectually interesting to the political elite no doubt but incomprehensible for normal people. This is a film we have just made to hit home the downsides of DIY government.
You can personalise the film here and blame the Big Society on someone who is thinking of voting Tory on Thursday.
A Future Fair For All - The Movie
We have created an interactive film with RSA to take the spirit and message of the Labour Party's manifesto for the UK general election in May to a broader audience than normally concerns themselves with such things.
The manifesto cover was ours too.
Election coverage
This is our latest poster for the Labour Party. We are running it in Brighton to coincide with the Tory Party spring conference and the their slipping poll lead.
It's just a poster of course, but even in this day and age they can still be oh so powerful. This execution is about the incompetence of the person that would like to be the next Chancellor of the Exchequer. A man that would be out of his depth in a paddling pool.
As the election unfolds I am going to try and share as much as I can with you. Regardless of your political affiliations (though I have yet to meet a right wing planner) its going to be fascinating, and I suspect very different to the last great case study in political campaigning from the US.
Click below for a bigger version.
Getting tasty with the Tories
Thought you might be interested in the first of our new Camera On, Camera Off campaign for the Labour Party aimed at proving that David Cameron (the leader of the UK Conservative opposition party) rarely believes what he says.
We are interested in the way that political communications are now about establishing ideas voters can play with. We saw that unintentionally with David Cameron's 'airbrushed for change' campaign where people made their own versions by editing billboards or by uploading their own ads to sites like mydavidcameron.com. Obviously we'd like to encourage this approach with the Camera On and Off meme.
This version was for a press conference this morning on NHS targets but expect to see more in the future.
This is the version exposing Cameron's habit of lying about his support for gay adoption.
It appeared first along side an Attitude magazine interview with Cameron like so.
Here he is getting confused about what to say about his Vice Chairman not paying UK tax. In fact doesn't that mean that Cameron is spending money that should have gone to UK tax payers on his his own campaigning?
Look at the strategy on her
Image courtesy of Mainman.
Droga 5's The Great Schlep idea has been doing the rounds recently as one of the smartest and most engaging political campaigns in a Presidential election that is dripping with smart and engaging political campaigns.
But I thought I'd lob my two penny worth into the fountain of adulation for this piece of work.
Of course I love the execution of this film but I love the thinking even more. At Saatchi we have a little tool we use to help make our strategic thinking rigourous and potent. It goes by the name of an OIIC, or rather Objective, Issue, Insight and Creative Challenge. And this activity makes rather a nice OIIC.
Objective: To help Barack Obama win the US Presidential election
Issue: Key swing states like Florida will make the difference between winning and losing and although the Jewish community prides itself on its liberal values there is one place where this is anything but the case - the swing state of Florida.
Insight: The one group that might be able to influence the Jewish vote in Florida are the electorate's grandchildren who are adored by their grandparents.
Creative Challenge: Ask liberal Jewish grandchildren to convince their less liberal Jewish grandparents to vote for Obama
Idea: The Great Schlep
Rarely do we see such locked down strategic thinking in this category, thinking that has every chance of working because you can trace the idea back to the source objective. Something that can rarely be said of most viral/digital/cool stuff.
It's genius.
Hope it works.
Hat tip to Paul Silburn for the clip.
Here is Jackie Mason's response.