Going negative
David T Breaker | Monday, January 25th, 2010 | No Comments »
Iain Martin at the WSJ feels the Conservatives are making a mistake avoiding negative campaigning.
New Labour was [skilled] at negative campaigning and sloganeering. In comparison, the modern Conservatives have seemed a bit wimpish and wet in their approach. However, it appears to be deliberate. The Tories are determined to stay positive. Cameron’s marketing guru, Steve Hilton, wants to run an upbeat campaign — apparently calculating that the public is sick of negativity and that voters want hope.
I think by and large Hilton is right, the voters want hope and the Tories do have a historic “nasty party” image problem which negative advertising certainly won’t help. The problem is that hope is in short supply at the moment: the cupboard is bare and voters know it! To pretend otherwise will not only be hopelessly hollow that voters see right through it but also let Labour off the hook for the debt they have built up and let them propose their own giveaways. We have to have some form of negative campaigning to complement what limited positive we can offer.
Iain Martin also shares my view on the recent billboard.
The Tories are overthinking this and getting themselves into a tangle. Their most recent poster launch illustrated the problem. The slogan was two or three slogans fused into one, because they couldn’t decide which line to pursue. So it said something like: “We can’t go on like this, darling. I’ll cut the deficit but leave the nice NHS alone, although not the education or defense budgets.” It’s a confusion of positive and negative messages.
Negative campaigning however is risky and must be handled with care. They must avoid looking too personal, spiteful and childish, instead focussing on humour and something concrete – a policy, their record etc – that will resonate with voters. Or something iconic, the iPod inspired poster here being my suggestion.
