Page 136 - An Introduction to Political Communication Second Edition

ADVER TISING

that henceforth ‘a local authority shall not publish any material which
in whole or in part, appears to be designed to effect, or can reasonably
be regarded as likely to effect, 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’. 7
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. ‘Selling a
philosophy, because it is intangible, is much more complex than
selling a product. All we are endorsing about advertising is the
narrow, highly methodological technique. We are not endorsing
the style, the form, or any particular way of advertising a product.
We’re trying to extract benefits from the scientific technique of
marketing and apply it to a different world’ (Ibid.).
In October 1985 the new leader, Neil Kinnock, appointed a
current affairs television producer, Peter Mandelson, to the post of
Campaign and Communications Director which he had just created.
Mandelson in turn appointed advertising executive Philip Gould
to undertake a review of Labour’s campaign techniques. In 1990
Peter Mandelson himself became a Labour parliamentary candidate,
and his post was taken over by John Underwood, a former television
journalist and producer. Underwood’s tenure was very short, due
to conflicts of approach, and he resigned in June 1991 to be replaced
by Dave Hill, who co-ordinated campaign planning for the 1992
election.
The theme of the 1992 campaign was ‘It’s Time for Labour’ and
again, as in 1987, the advertisements elaborating on the theme were
well-produced and widely-praised. One broadcast backfired, however,
producing what Butler and Kavanagh call ‘the only real confrontation
of the campaign…the war of Jennifer’s Ear’ (1992, p.122). ‘Jennifer’s
Ear’ was the subject of Labour’s PEB on health. It presented, in glossy
and emotional terms, the sad tale of a young girl unable to get
treatment for a painful ear condition because of long National Health
Service waiting lists. Although the characters were portrayed by
actors, the film was based on a ‘true’ story, passed on to the party by

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