The poster gets my vote

Regardless of what political shade you are, whether you believe that the election will really be decided by how so-and-so stood up to Evan Davis or that the other-one really did perform quite well in that TV debate the other week, general election winners can be (and often are) pushed over the line because of a single, perfectly crafted communication. The reality is that the poster – the traditional media printed poster – has won many elections in one succinct message. The best of them become that perfect unity: the crystallisation of the party’s essence with what they want you to hear… with what we want to hear, at just the time we need to hear it. It’s the rallying cry behind which the bandwagon (or battle bus) is pulled. In short, brand response.

Of course, the lesson of some elections is that our political parties, all geared up to tell us their big ideas at any and every opportunity as they are, are often not very good at finding and then communicating that single important idea in a way that we, the electorate, just ‘get’. To be fair, we’re often lazy and remote viewers of politics, not even feigning interest in the nuances and complexities of policy. But hey, surely not our problem, but theirs…

I’ve chosen five political posters that have a proven track record. The election was won, and handsomely. Just like any sharp brand advertising campaign, they work in the blink of an eye and yet still speak to the gut instinct. And that’s the power of a truly great ad, political or otherwise; with a single line it cuts through the last 5 years of incumbent party or aspirational opposition experience. It gets past that awkward off-the-cuff gaff or successful opposition takedown, and it gets the message out.

Where should we start? Perhaps the greatest political poster of recent decades, Saatchi’s 1979 election poster, often credited with the downfall of James Callaghan’s government. Allegedly Margaret Thatcher didn’t like it, stating that it was bad advertising form to put the opposition’s name in the ad. But she had missed the genius of it that captured and shaped the mood of the time – a very simple and memorable headline, with a wry double meaning. Pure copywriting craft.

 

 

Looking back to perhaps what could be thought of as the dawn of modern political communication, we have this poster. It uses all the tools learnt from the years of war information and propaganda posters; simple typography married with a striking image. For a political poster, indeed any poster, it is very unusual, in so much as it doesn’t wear any overt branding. However, the message that encapsulated the national mood (and the not-so-subtle red type), capturing the desire for a brighter future, left the electorate under no doubt whom to vote for. The brand isn’t in a logo – it shouts out of the execution. And Labour won the 1945 election with a landslide.

 

This ad from 1992 follows the rules perfectly. It uses a single-minded message reinforced with a striking image to leave you in no doubt about the party’s brand essence. And it defined what they wanted the election to boil down to. When you’ve got a strong message, shout about it. Another election won.

 

Humour can often be a very powerful tool in the advertiser’s armoury. In this instance we have a particularly memorable image that leads the viewer into joining the dots in a certain ‘preferred’ direction. It’s coupled with copy that is both instantly familiar and reinforces itself with repetition – another useful tool. This is another ad where the party leader had to be convinced of the power of a simple but strong idea. Tony Blair didn’t like the tone of the ad, believing it to be too negative, until he looked again at the image and laughed. The point was made and Labour went on to win a second term in 2001.

 

 

Ads often need to address and counter the competition directly, perhaps even by using the competitor’s own work against them. This ad is something of a guerrilla ad, responding as it did to a Labour party campaign poster by ‘borrowing’ it and then twisting it quite subtly (with the addition of the yellow horse). It works on two levels. It uses an easily accessible metaphor and turns the opposition’s own brand 180 degrees to express the new preferred message. The SNP won the election by more than a head, north of the border in 2010.

 

I’ve decided to end this blog with a poster from the current election campaign. But as you can see, it’s not from any particular political party. As yet, we can’t say whether this campaign will have any success with its stated objective, but it is doing everything right. The campaign uses provocative images that seem to burrow their way into the emotional side of the brain. Couple that with a clear rational message and strong use of a typographical layout and I’m sure that by whatever metrics it will be measured, it will ultimately prove itself a success, regardless of the results declared on 8th May.

 

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