Page 132 - An Introduction to Political Communication Fifth Edition

Intro to Politics Communication (5th edn)-p.qxp 9/2/11 10:55 Page 111

ADVERTISING
concerned about losing their right to vote for local government, which was
one obvious consequence of the GLC’s abolition. In the light of their
findings, and to maximise support amongst predominantly pro-Tory voters
for an organisation run by the Labour Left, BMP developed a dual strategy
of, first, informing Londoners about the basic public service (and largely
apolitical) activities of the GLC, such as running a cheap and efficient mass
transport network. Second, they sought to combat the Tory government’s
(and its supporters in the press) demonisation of the GLC and Ken
Livingstone in particular. The resulting advertisements were of two basic
types: those dealing with the issue of the GLC were in black and white,
connoting ‘seriousness’; those tackling the demonisation of the Left were
humorous and mocking of the government.
Although the GLC campaign was unable to prevent the powerful Tory
government from proceeding with its abolition legislation, opinion polls
indicated that, by its end, a majority of Londoners – including those who
would declare themselves to be Conservative voters – favoured the con-
tinuation of the GLC and opposed government policy on this issue. The cam-
paign consequently ‘won plaudits for BMP throughout the advertising world
and grudging admiration from Livingstone’s opponents in the political
world’ (Hughes and Wintour, 1993, p. 55). It also showed, in the view of
Labour’s media adviser Philip Gould, that ‘sophisticated communication
techniques, and in particular advertising, can be used by a radical organisa-
tion without compromising either the message, or the policies underlying [it]’
(ibid.).
So successful was the campaign perceived to be, by friends and enemies
of the Livingstone-led GLC alike, that the government later introduced
measures to prevent a repetition of it in future struggles with local
government, of which, in the era of poll tax and rate-capping, there were to
be many, and not just with Labour-controlled authorities. The Local
Government Act of 1986 declared that henceforth ‘a local authority shall not
publish any material which in whole or in part, appears to be designed to
affect, or can reasonably be regarded as likely to affect, public support for
(a) a political party, or (b) a body, cause or campaign identified with, or likely
to be regarded as identified with, a political party’. 11
The example of the GLC was a major factor in breaking down Labour’s
long-standing resistance to the use of advertising techniques, although the
process had begun with the trauma of the 1983 defeat and the election of
Neil Kinnock as leader to replace Michael Foot. Nick Grant, one of Labour’s
media advisers, reflected the ‘new realism’ when he accepted that the party
was now in the business of ‘selling a set of social values. What you have to
do is substitute the offending aspiration for one you’ve researched. One that
is harmonious with your socialist principles’ (quoted in Myers, 1986,
p. 122). The party still had reservations, however:

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