Advertising

Thursday

Alex Massie

The Glory Days of Advertising

The More Doctors Smoke Camels Than Any Other Cigarette! advertisement is, I think, pretty familiar. Those were the days! Here’s a terrific collection of splendid (and some not so splendid) ads from the Mad Men era (and some from before it). Among my tobacco-favourites: “Born Gentle”? Class. Don Draper would have been proud. Rightly so, too. Should have been accompanied by another ad making a “Born Free” case. Then there’s this Marlboro gem: “You need never feel over-smoked” is a mild form of genius. Clearly this boy would grow up to be the Marlboro Cowboy. And, seasonally, this: It’s true: smoking is fun! Finally, for pipe smokers everywhere: All gone

Friday

Wednesday

Alex Massie

Campaign Ad of the Week: Puppy Slaying Edition

I don’t much care who wins the Illinois gubernatorial election and agree with Nick Gillespie that we need more ads like this: Politifact scores the ad “half-true” which, actually, means I’d be happy to see Brady lose even though he’s dropped his sponsorship of the bill and the issue is, anyway, “moot”.Relatedly: Mitt Romney’s record of dog-abuse might be thought enough to disqualify him from the Presidency.

Tuesday

Alex Massie

I Am Not A Witch

This week’s top campaign ad comes from Christine O’Donnell, GOP Senatorial candidate in Delaware: I don’t think she’s a witch either! But doesn’t this remind you of Nixon’s “I am not a crook”? Perhaps not. Anyway Fred Davis, who made the ad, explains the concept here. UPDATE: See Toby Harnden for more. I agree with Toby that there’s power in the “ordinary folks” approach (and that focusing on the witch sillyness is a means by which O’Donnell can disarm other, slightly more substantive, criticisms by suggesting that they’re just as daft as the witchcraft stuff). However there’s also a limit to folksiness: at some point, as Sarah Palin discovered, you

Tuesday

Gabriel Milland

The cuts start to bite

It must have been the toughest press release that anyone in the Central Office of Infomation has ever had to draft. A freeze on new campaigns and the abandonment of any regarded as “non-essential” mean staff numbers will drop by 40 percent – a loss of 287 jobs. Compulsory redundancies loom. The same press notice also revealed that the COI’s advertising spend was down by a 52% last month compared to June last year. We are not talking about small sums here. Last year’s COI marketing  spend of an eye-watering £531 million – half of it going on advertising – was about 20 percent more than the next biggest spender,

Friday

Alex Massie

Beat This, Adidas

Nike’s World Cup ad is great. Let’s see how Adidas counter with Lionel Messi et al. Note too how even in an ad Ronaldo is an egotistical pillock.

Wednesday

Fraser Nelson

The cost of Brown's propaganda splurge

Gordon Brown has been shameless in using the tools of state to advance his party political objectives – to him, government is electoral war by other means. Anyone who has turned on a commercial radio station recently will have worked out his latest trick: a mass propaganda splurge before an election campaign. Get on a bus, and it can be 100 percent state adverts – advising how Big Brother will help you get a job, buy a car, see off door-to-door salesmen, give you a job in the prison services – anything you want. We at The Spectator have tracked down the figures that show the extent of all this.

Saturday

Peter Hoskin

Welcome to The Future Fair

So now we know.  Labour’s election slogan is A future fair for all.  And – as various folk, including Alex, have pointed out – it’s kinda screwy.  As in, “we’re all going to The Future Fair” kinda screwy.  So don’t expect it to catch on.  Unless, of course, there really are bright lights, big wheels and rollercoasters on offer. The slogan kickstarts a feverish weekend of activity.  Brown is going to set out the main themes of Labour’s campaign.  The Tories might try to sabotage it all.  And we may, possibly, perhaps, find out what the election date is.  Stay tuned, so to speak. P.S. I wouldn’t be too surprised

Alex Massie

The Loved Ones

It’s not something I’d thought about but, in a certain way or looked at from the right perspective, it’s a good question: What happens to your pet when the Rapture comes? Happily, After the Rapture Pet Care are here to help: It’s only $10 a month! Now it’s true that cynics might say that this is either a joke or a scam but I prefer to admire the considerate (and considerable) piety behind the scheme and take my hat off to the entrepreneurial spirit that accompanies it. (Relatedly, there are parts of the internets that Mencken would love. Waugh too, of course.) People say this will be the Chinese century

Tuesday

James Forsyth

The problem with that David Cameron ad

Labour’s new ad with David Cameron facing both ways highlights what was wrong with the Tories’ opening ad of the year, that one dominated by Cameron’s face. The Tory strategy for the election campaign has to be to try and make it into a referendum on this failed government. But that ad, which emphasised Cameron so strongly, gave Labour an opening to try and turn the election not just into a choice between two parties but into a referendum on David Cameron and Tory policy. Labour’s success in doing this is largely responsible for the Tory wobble. The contrast between Cameron and Brown does work to the Tories’ advantage. But

Alex Massie

The Ox vs Roy the Rat

Granted, it’s not quite as memorable as the unsurpassable Demon Sheep, but this ad for John Oxendine, who’s running to be the GOP gubernatorial candidate in Georgia, has a certain zany-yet-quaint charm to it. Gotta love the gratuitous, thrown-in-for-fun Frog-bashing too. And the line that the Ox is “strong enough to oppose the special interest, graceful enough to care for the people.” Take that Disney! Go on, watch it, you won’t regret doing so. More like this, please.

Peter Hoskin

The Tories' new attack poster is Brownite politics at its worst

The Tories are keen to hammer the government over the £20,000 “death tax” story which appeared in the Guardian this morning.  And, to that end, they’ve produced the attack poster above.  According to their press release, it will appear in 18 sites across London tonight. At first glance, it’s a strong image with an equally strong message.  So what’s the problem?  Well, only the fact that Andy Burnham this morning denied the death tax claim with the words, “The Guardian story suggests a £20,000 flat levy. I’m not currently considering that as a lead option for reform.”  Sure, the Health Secretary has left himself some wiggle room – he could

Wednesday

Alex Massie

Vote for the Sheep!

It’s not the Coroner’s race in New Orleans, but this GOP ad in California is still pretty special. In the race for the GOP Senate nomination it seems that the problem is, as Jon Chait points out, that Tom Campbell isn’t a sheep. And that’s bad. Very baaaad. (Sorry.) Among his crimes? Thinking that California’s fiscal predicament might be alleviated, just a little, by increasing taxes on gasoline. The whole thing has a mesmerising quality that is quite splendid and well worth your time. We need this sort of political advertising in Britain…

Friday

Alex Massie

The Best Political Ad of the Year

No doubting this. Apparently you need to win an election to become Coroner in New Orleans. This is good news since it has produced the strangest attack ad I’ve seen in ages: By way of background: The spot portraying [Dr Frank] Minyard as a Frankensteinian crazy was paid for by Dwight McKenna, MD, a convicted tax evader who’s running against Minyard. It’s airing on local TV in the area. The video highlights a mini-scandal from the 1990s, when Minyard was sued for allegedly removing bone pieces and corneas from the deceased and passing them onto transplant centers without permission. “It’s contemptible,” McKenna said in an interview. Of course, some people

Friday

Alex Massie

A Pizza Strategy for Labour?

Hopi Sen argues that Gordon Brown needs to run a Harry Truman-like campaign. That’s probably right. But Labour’s problem is that Brown is in a position that’s more like the Truman of 1951 than the surprisingly victorious Truman of 1948. The economy has done to Gordon waht the Korean War did to the great haberdasher and, like Truman, Brown’s approval ratings have plummeted. (At one point Truman’s slumped to 22%). Eventually, of course, defeat in the New Hampshire primary helped persuade Truman not to run at all and it was Adlai Stevenson who was defeated by Eisenhower. It’s too late – surely! – for Labour to persuade Brown to step

Friday

Peter Hoskin

Gordon Brown on fighting and winning...

Ok, I know Labour circulars will always fly the party flag – but the email that’s just gone out in Gordon Brown’s name has to win some sort of prize for sheer party political effrontery.  With the subject line “When we fight we win,” here’s how it begins: “If there’s one thing that our recent by-election successes and this week’s coverage about the £34 billion credibility gap in the Tories’ spending plans shows us, it’s that when we fight, we win. I know that despite the icy conditions, so many of you are preparing to go out campaigning this weekend. That, for me, says it all about the spirit of

Tuesday

Peter Hoskin

Clocking on

As publicity stunts go, the debt clock the Tories beamed onto Battersea Power Station this evening is quite a decent idea.  Their thinking’s pretty clear – get some coverage in tomorrow’s papers, and increase the likelihood that the horrendous state of the public finances becomes the story of the PBR – but it’s probably no less effective for it.  Anyway, here are some pictures so you can judge for yourself: P.S. Yes, I know it’s out of sync with the Coffee House debt counter. We’re going to update our numbers on the back of tomorrow’s PBR.