How the Tories should fight back against Labour's attack ads
How the Tories should fight back against Labour’s attack ads: MAURICE SAATCHI says the Conservatives need to battle like they did for Margaret Thatcher
Politics is an adversarial activity. Hit or be hit. It is not a world for the squeamish or the faint-hearted.
I concede that the ‘attack ads’ unveiled by Labour this week are distasteful and may damage their chances of regaining power. I do not baulk at the sheer negativity, however.
I have no moral objection to them, even though one of them accuses Rishi Sunak of believing that paedophiles don’t deserve to go to prison.
In fact, I regard myself as the godfather of negative campaigning. Professor David Butler, the most respected authority on the history of British general elections, once told me I was ‘personally responsible’ for ruining British politics with negative advertising.
It wasn’t a comfortable moment but I’m not ashamed of my contribution. The series of hard-hitting attacks that Saatchi and Saatchi mounted against Labour helped the Tories win 17 years in power. Negatives are necessary. My personal unpopularity is the price I pay.
Politics is an adversarial activity. Hit or be hit. It is not a world for the squeamish or the faint-hearted, says Maurice Saatchi. Pictured: The Mail imagines how the adverts could look
The ‘attack ads’ unveiled by Labour this week are distasteful and may damage their chances of regaining power
Altruism and lofty ideals have their place in politics, of course, but our election campaigns are a ruthless clash between two sides that cannot both triumph. One or other has to strike a knock-out blow, and that means punching as hard as possible.
Intelligent politicians know it’s necessary to be negative, and it always has been. Society is built on negatives: nine of the Ten Commandments are negatives. Thou shalt not this, thou shalt not that.
Negative campaigning is designed to bring an opponent to his knees – because, to quote another memorable saying from the Holy Land: ‘When the camel kneels, the knives go in.’ That gory proverb implies that the best time for a butcher to strike is when an animal is weakened. Horrible, but true.
Keir Starmer, who was vocal in the Daily Mail yesterday in backing Labour’s attack ads, wants to stick the knife into the Tory party. His method is clumsy and inept, and he may soon regret botching the job.
When Margaret Thatcher came to Saatchi and Saatchi in 1979, and asked us to land a knockout blow on prime minister Jim Callaghan’s Labour Party, we did it with clinical precision – coining the phrase ‘Labour Isn’t Working’.
That slogan, above a photograph of a snaking dole queue, has been called the definitive political advertisement of the 20th century. It is utterly negative. It consists solely of an attack on the opposition, with only an unspoken promise that the alternative will be better.
But it summed up everything the electorate feared about Britain’s floundering socialist government. Labour was meant to be the friend of the working classes – but what use was that, if there were no jobs?
We followed that up in 1992 with another knock-out blow. The headline was ‘Labour’s Tax Bombshell’, over a picture of a bomb with a printed warning: ‘You’d pay £1,250 more tax a year under Labour.’
Altruism and lofty ideals have their place in politics, of course, but our election campaigns are a ruthless clash between two sides that cannot both triumph
Pictured: Labour leader Keir Starmer during a visit to Burnley College in East Lancashire
That negative message was a prime reason why Neil Kinnock’s party, despite the predictions of most pundits, failed to win.
Five years later, Saatchi and Saatchi delivered the most negative attack ad of all: a picture of Tony Blair, with a strip torn away to reveal his glittering red, demonic eyes. ‘New Labour, New Danger,’ warned the slogan.
I’m proud of all those posters. They helped to define the political landscape of the late 20th century. But I wouldn’t be proud of the current Labour ads that have generated so much controversy.
They fail because you remember nothing about them except the nasty taste they leave in the mouth.
It’s a great skill to make a point in a few memorable words. Simplicity is the result of extreme technical sophistication, austerity and concision. It is more than a discipline. It is a test. It precipitates failure when a message is weak, and it purifies and strengthens a message that is strong.
To be effective, slogans have to be heartfelt. Though Sir Keir claims he stands by every word, I imagine he wouldn’t be able to remember the text accurately without picking up a copy and reading it.
Dishonest attacks convince nobody. Slander and insult are not the weapons of a real heavyweight. They just confirm the suspicion of voters that politicians will say anything to gain power.
But any attack in the boxing ring invites a counter-attack. The Tories know they’re in a fight now, and I hope they are intent on landing a knock-out blow.
- Lord Saatchi was chairman of the Conservative Party, 2003-2005.
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