Page 137 - An Introduction to Political Communication Third Edition

COMMUNICATING POLITICS

Figure 6.2 Labour’s position on Europe.
Source: Saatchi.

design a series of ads highlighting the allegedly sinister, manipu-
lative nature of New Labour. The infamous ‘demon eyes’ poster,
depicting Tony Blair literally as the devil, was the most spectacular
example of a campaign which tried to convince the electorate that
professional political communication was only marginally more
acceptable in a democratic society than devil worship. It failed,
however, in so far as it had no discernible impact on public opinion
and voting intentions, and did not prevent the landslide Labour
victory of May 1997.
The Tories also tried to exploit Labour’s relatively pro-European
policy with a poster ad depicting Tony Blair sitting, puppet-like, on
the knee of the then German chancellor Helmut Kohl (Figure 6.2).
This too failed to resonate with the British people, and succeeded
merely in generating negative publicity for the Conservatives, who
stood accused of xenophobia and political immaturity. Both the
‘demon eyes’ and ‘Blair as Kohl’s puppet’ campaigns showed that
the political environment was no longer one in which crude Labour-
bashing messages could find a receptive audience (although such
tactics had worked well in previous campaigns). The British people
(or enough of them, at any rate) had grown tired of the Tories and

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