Election Poster Critique
Dr Paul Baines
Andrew Kirchner
I am joined in the studio today by our political marketing expert,
Dr Paul Baines.
So Paul, UK General Election in three weeks time; how is marketing
being used by the political parties to advance their message and gain
those all important votes?
Paul Baines
Well it is used in a variety of ways Andrew. It is used in the sense
that it is on billboards, so you will see billboards – probably the most
visual element that our audience have seen so far. It is used in
terms of driving activity on the internet – both awareness and to
engage the electorate and so on in getting out to vote.
It is also used in understanding how politicians should present
themselves in the debates; so the three leaders will be taking advice
from various marketing and media specialists on how to present
themselves and the Party during those debates. It is used in
research terms to understand what policies the voters actually want
to appeal to them and so on. And it is used in other media such as
the Party Election Broadcasts which have been on this week for the
first time and will continue through until the end of the campaign.
So it is really around the communications activity principally and that
is the bit that the electorate see, but it is also in relation to the
research and the underpinnings of the policies that they are putting
forward too. So it is in a variety of ways.
Andrew Kirchner
We have got some the latest election posters here; let’s go through
them and critique them. First one; Labour, David Cameron depicted
as Gene Hunt from Ashes to Ashes.
Paul Baines
Well I think the thing about that advert is that it is very negative. It
is negative in the sense that here we see Cameron as a spiv and the
idea is to suggest to denigrate his character to really try to suggest
that he is not trustworthy – trustworthy on the economy, that he will
go back to the boom and bust as Labour positions it in the 80s and
that he will return them to that.
So it is trying to damage his credibility really.
Andrew Kirchner
Let’s take the Conservative poster; I took billions from pensions, vote
for me with Gordon Brown’s image.
Paul Baines
Exactly the same; again, very negative this time from the Tories.
Interestingly enough about that it has got a very insincere sort of
badly smiling Gordon Brown there. What is interesting about that is
that the image and the words are designed so that people see those
Knowledge Interchange Online© Cranfield University
April 2010
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Dr Paul Baines
immediately and hardly see the Conservative message below. That
is quite interesting.
The research actually about negative political advertising is
equivocal; it says that sometimes it is good and sometimes it is bad.
It can be good for the company doing it if the message is correct and
not seen as overly vicious. It can be bad if it is seen as vicious.
Andrew Kirchner
The Lib Dems focusing on a possible rise in VAT.
Paul Baines
A direct copy of a Labour advert in the ‘92 election. Again a
negative message; the idea that the Tories would really do this is
unlikely but the point is that they know that the Tories are trying to
gain credibility over the economy and they are directly trying to
damage it because their key competition is really the Tories.
Andrew Kirchner
And finally, UK Independence Party; what can you say about that?
Paul Baines
Well, not much; the message is very, very negative indeed. UKIP is
really trying to capitalise on the negativity that people have for the
Parliamentary process generally, the expenses scandal and all the rest
of it. They are trying to tie into that directly, but there is not much to
say; there is no intellectual content to that at all.
Andrew Kirchner
Paul, thank you very much indeed.
Paul Baines
Thank you.
© Cranfield University
April 2010
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