This video on YouTube looks to be a new political ad for the British Labour Party (not quite, see update). It's long at 2:30, and it has an edge, but it's certainly seems to be a novel new form of political advertising. And, as my British friends would say, I think it's bloody brilliant.
Could such a hard-edged ad work here in Canada against the Conservatives? Debatable. The consensus seems to be the Harper is scary concept is played, and unlike in England, Canadians are already getting a taste of Conservative government, although only in minority form. A majority could look vastly different.
What could be equally effective about this ad here though is the whole morning after hangover, stuck for four more years theme. That sort of a message played well here could potentially resonate. Anyway, really cool ad, it's nice to see political operatives thinking outside the box.
UPDATE: In the comments, Olaf points out this isn't an actual Labour Party ad, but rather a spoof ad commissioned by a British TV station to try and show political parties what good political advertising could be. They also have ads up for the other British parties. Either way, a good model I think for parties on both sides of the pond.
Tuesday, March 20, 2007
Political ad - Bloody brilliant
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9 comments:
Very good ad! We (liberals) should be more aggressive. Not necessarily negative but very determine and blunt!
Good concept, but as for the content... malicious journalists twisting facts...!? They aren't referring to Afghanistan, they're talking about the war in Iraq.
I can't help but hope that Labor gets their asses handed back to themselves on plates.
Cute and well done.
Robert, not in the context of the UK, because gawd knows, I can't figure out Blair, but the concept, a story to tell outside of bullet points, is interesting. I also would say that it is time for a change in how we do ads here and, they tend to lead the way on the other side of the Atlantic.
The only thing I'd offer, is don't use known Canadian actors, they'd be painted as shills. That would reduce the impact of the ad and potentially hurt some careers.
Jeff, I think there are a ton of narratives here outside of the "Harper scary" one, though I'm not sure it's been over played, just not played with accuracy. The reality of what has happened thus far, take any of the cut's and you have a scenario. Have the tv in the background with old Harper speeches, depicting that current events are only the beginning. I don't know, the list is endless and I would agree, thinking outside the box is what we need to do.
Send this to the Liberal creative brain trust would you. Maybe you'll get someone thinking.
The "Harper scary narrative" is and is not used up. It is not used up in so far as the Liberals did a very poor job of it of trying to paint Harper as scary and could have done much more with it. Conversely, it is used up in that Harper is now PM. The best the Liberals can do now as paint a "Harper majority as scary". I do not think they have the budget or brains to do so and Harper's being in power means their task is already much more difficult.
That said, Harper can be defined if only the Liberals would back socially liberal policies, a la SSM. Given that the Liberal party is likely to do no such thing and is content to sit back and have its lunch fed to them, it is likely that they will not be able to define Harper. The Conservatives will outspend and outmuscle the Liberals for media attention. And, unless the Liberals are able to define Harper as A) a social con or B) beholden to social cons, not only will the Conservatives win the next election they will win a small majority.
The environment and the economy where supposedly the Liberal’s strong suits. However, the passage of time and two large surpluses have already made people forget about the Liberal economic record, and Harper has neutralized many of the Liberals environmental avenues of attack and has lunched success counter strikes.
Bloody Brilliant.Reminds me of 4 yrs.of Jean,then four years of Jean,then Jean ,Paul,Dion.When would it all end,then along came Steve?Should I invest another 4 yrs,even Mom who didn't work,didn't put us in dayvare institutions would probaly like Steve!
Jeff,
I really like the add as well, but it's not actually made by the BLP. It's a spoof ad made by a British TV station showing what the parties "would wish to show" - they did them for the Conservatives and LDP as well (I think the LDP one would be particularly good for the Dippers).
Ahhh... that explains the malicious journalist spin
That's absoloutely hilarious!
And as you say, bloody brilliant...
I checked out the other two for the other parties but they were nowhere near as good. Yep, perhaps we should try them here. Bye bye Harper. Doesn't sound so bad.
Nice blog BTW. Seem to be far too few Canuck bloggers out there.
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