Page 128 - An Introduction to Political Communication Second Edition

ADVER TISING

In the five years between the Tories’ landslide victory of 1987 and
the general election of 1992, much changed within the party. Most
importantly, Margaret Thatcher had been deposed as prime minister
by dissidents within her own party, to be replaced by John Major, a
political figure of distinctly different image and personality. The
change of leadership thus required a change in communication
strategy, such that a government which had been in office for 13
years could claim to be offering something new. In 1991 party
chairman Chris Patten re-appointed Saatchi and Saatchi to handle
the upcoming campaign, in an attempt to ‘rebuild the creative
atmosphere of 1978 and 1979’ (Butler and Kavanagh, 1992, p.35).
The company utilised the qualitative research methods and results
of Richard Wirthlin, who had been consulted extensively after the
perceived failures of the 1987 campaign. Wirthlin

claimed that, although voters’ preferences on personalities
and policies fluctuated, values were more stable; if the
Party could understand and, to some extent, shape those
values, then it would be much better placed to develop
an effective communication strategy. The research
required time-consuming and expensive in-depth
interviews… [and] suggested that the most important
values which the electorate sought in parties were, in
order: 1. Hope; 2. Security; 3. Peace of Mind.
(Ibid., p.36)

On the basis of these findings Saatchi and Saatchi developed for
the Conservatives an advertising campaign which emphasised the
party’s reputation for being strong in economic management, while
avoiding Labour’s chosen ground of social issues. Labour’s alleged
‘tax and spend’ plans became the subject of the successful ‘Tax
Bombshell’ poster of January 1992 (see Figure 6.1), a theme
returned to in posters and advertisements during the election
campaign itself.
The most memorable Conservative advertisement of the 1992
campaign was directed by John Schlesinger, and presented a personal
profile of John Major. The profile fits into the cinéma-verité category
of political advertising discussed above, in that it took Major back
to his ‘roots’ in Brixton, London, showing him visiting and talking
with ‘ordinary people’ on the streets and at the market. In one scene,
he wonders ‘spontaneously’ if his old house will still be standing. ‘It
is!’, he says poignantly, as the prime ministerial car drives up. ‘It is!’.

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