We Put The ‘Con’ Into ‘Conservative’
- February 03 2010, 17:01
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In election year, the year when more lies are told than in any other, advertising generally takes a Peter Snow upswing, as the Reds, Blues, Yellows, Greens, and all the other parties who won’t get elected, enter timidly into the world of advertising to persuade voters they are the best of a bad bunch.
Now, it’s not surprising that out of touch, out of pocket (after the expenses scandal) MPs struggle to connect with voters through media, when they can barely persuade people to vote for them once every 5 years (just 62% of people eligible to vote did so in 2005).
However, David Cameron has stuck his head above the parapet, and launched this effort. Pretty poor, when you compare it to previous political heavyweight ads, such as this one.
Cameron’s poster, of which 700 appear around the country at a cost of c.£500k (Source: The Guardian), has been widely criticised for appearing ‘presidential’, for airbrushing Cameron’s facial blemishes, and for appearing to make the party into a one-man campaign.
The criticism has gone viral, with the My David Cameron website allowing voters to make their own Conservative ad by completing their own straplines, in the same style as the official ad. The current favourite (by popular votes, of course) is this effort.
As a way of engaging with advertising, this is an excellent way of an ad having a life beyond its point of consumption. It might not be what the Conservatives want, but it does show the power of advertising: people are talking.
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