Political posters

Today saw the launch of the 2015 election campaigns and the impact of digital technology in a post-modern world of media is inescapable. 'No orthodoxy can be accepted without irony' is one explanation of this term which is bad news for much maligned politicians who cling to these once powerful mediums hoping they can influence an increasingly sceptical and media savvy public. one almost feels sorry for them but it is always interesting to see what the advertising agencies come up with.  The difference is we can now actively participate in de-constructing or parodying the messages that were once foisted upon us.

Here are two classic posters which had an affect on the political discourse of their time.

Advertising agency Saatchi and Saatchi came up with this poster in 1979 and it helped Margaret Thatcher to convince voters that the Conservatives would bring down unemployment and end the general gloom of the 1970's. The simplicity of the advert was its strength and the message was clear and worked on a more passive audience.

Saatchi and Saatchi came up with another memorable advert in 1997 directly attacking Tony Blair's character using his image without permission and running into problems with the regulator the ASA.
However, the image was effective and sowed the seeds of mistrust in a very popular leader which were exploited later during the invasion of Iraq.

It led to the Labour party releasing a poster in response using the slogan, 'same old Tories, same old lies'.

The Conservatives launched their campaign today with this poster

De-construct the poster and analyse the messages and meanings.

Image - what are the connotations?
Anchorage - how does the text anchor the meaning of the advert

Unfortunately for politicians the world of new media has made such launches more difficult and prone to gaffes that undermine their message.  If we believe the press then the advertising agency used an image from an online stock photo source rather than taking the image themselves which smacks of laziness at best and gross incompetence at worst.  The original photo is manipulated which suggest that it is all a fabricated representation or 'lie'.  We all know that these posters are made to manipulate an audience but the message is totally undermined here. When asked if this was a place in Britain Tories defended the photo only to find it was taken in Germany later in the day. The claims made abut the deficit being halved are also being questioned, as ever there are more than two sides to every story.

Perhaps it is time for honesty in politics rather than spin and manipulation, it might be a vote winner!

Labour's poster tried to employ a meme from a few years back which may be too clever for its own good or may exploit new media technologies and gain some mainstream exposure for a clever, rather niche, interactive web tool which parodies Conservative adverts.  This could have little effect or could gain traction with an electorate who would rather engage with adverts as an active audience rather than being preached at. If they can revive the meme and it goes viral on social media then it could be a powerful advertising tool and a skilful harnessing of new media technology.

The idea is taken from the mydavidcameron.com site which allows users to create their own poster parodying  a previous campaign.

For example...


The original poster

and one that has been created by an active audience using new media technologies such as photoshop and social media to challlenge and undermine the original message.

I think we may be seeing a lot more of this.



Your task is to research historical examples of political advertising and to use these to explore the topics we will cover such as 'media in the online age'