Page 137 - An Introduction to Political Communication Second Edition

AN INTRODUCTION TO POLITICAL COMMUNICATION

an angry parent, who also happened to be a Labour supporter.
Unfortunately, ‘Jennifer’s’ other parent, her mother, was a
Conservative supporter, as was ‘Jennifer’s’ grandfather. Hearing of
the use to be made of ‘Jennifer’s’ condition, they contacted the
Conservative Party, and thus began a ‘war’, conducted amidst huge
media attention, between rival claims as to the truth of ‘Jennifer’s’
ear: was it the cynical manipulation of a child’s illness by unscrupulous
(Labour) politicians, presented without context and understanding
of the real situation, or was it a legitimate exposure of Tory health
policy in action?
As the ‘war’ progressed, giving the media their most extensively
covered story of the campaign, it moved away from the debate on
health to one of ethics, in which both parties’ campaign teams were
implicated. The advertisement became a story in itself, over which
the parties had little control. Labour’s ‘A Time for Change’ message
was premature in 1992, and the Conservatives won a fourth
consecutive general election, though with a much reduced majority.
Although Labour’s communication apparatus was much more
professional and ‘scientific’ than ever before, the political
environment remained unsympathetic to its core message, and
presentational errors on tax and other issues were enough to
maintain majority support for the Tories. By the time of the 1997
campaign, however, with Tony Blair installed as leader, and
Conservative sleaze and infighting dominating the news agenda,
electoral success and political power were within Labour’s reach
for the first time in eighteen years. With further improvement of
the communications machinery, and wholesale adoption of Clinton-
style political advertising and marketing techniques, Labour’s
advertising strategy in 1996–7 was simply to hold on to the huge
lead in the opinion polls which it had established. Adapting the
Clinton strategy of ‘triangulation’ to the British context, new Labour
set out to steal the best Tory clothes, while retaining left-of-centre
social democratic values, repositioning itself as the ‘radical centre’
in British politics. The results of the strategy were seen in such ads
as those depicting a British bulldog (a traditionally Tory symbol of
a rather unpleasant and aggressive British nationalism), remaking
it as a symbol of Labour’s ease with patriotism (albeit a humane,
ethical patriotism compatible with socialist philosophy) (Figure 6.3).
In this way, Labour developed a ‘brand’ capable of appealing
to the large numbers of ‘soft’ Tory, affluent working- and
middle-class voters who had kept the Conservatives in power for
eighteen years, as well as their traditional supporters.

120