Page 145 - An Introduction to Political Communication Third Edition

COMMUNICATING POLITICS

were portrayed by actors, the film was based on a ‘true’ story,
passed on to the party by 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’ grand-
father. Hearing of the use to be made of ‘Jennifer’s’ condition, they
contacted the Conservative Party. 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; 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 in-fighting domi-
nating 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 whole-
sale 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 6.4). In
this way, Labour developed a ‘brand’ capable of appealing to the
large number of ‘soft’ Tory, affluent working- and middle-class

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