Labour ‘attack ads’, the political campaigns that have cut through and their impact on elections
Labour is continuing to face a backlash over its social media posts criticising Rishi Sunak’s record – but the party is far from the first to use so-called dirty tricks to win over voters.
One of the earliest and most famous attack ads was used by Lyndon Johnson against Barry Goldwater in the 1964 US Presidential election.
Known as “Daisy”, the ad showed a little girl plucking petals from a flower before a nuclear blast filled the screen. “These are the stakes. To make a world in which all of God’s children can live”, said a voiceover by Johnson in the background.
The message – that Goldwater’s approach to the Cold War could lead to nuclear annihilation – was not lost on the American people, who voted in Johnson two months later.
The ad pioneered negative political advertising, which soon made its way across the Atlantic.
Here, Sky News looks at some of the most memorable attack ads in British politics – and their impact on elections.
Labour isn’t working
The ‘Labour isn’t working’ campaign is considered one of the most influential attack adverts in British politics
A decade on from Daisy, a 1979 poster for the Conservative Party declaring “Labour isn’t working” heralded the arrival of US-style political advertising in the UK.
Created by Saatchi and Saatchi, the ad showed a picture of a snaking dole queue outside an unemployment office.
The designers planned to use 100 extras but only 20 from the Hendon Young Conservatives showed up – so the effect was achieved by photographing the same people over again and striping them together.
Labour’s Denis Healey denounced this in parliament, claiming that the Conservatives were “selling politics like soap powder”.
But his criticism served only to generate widespread newspaper coverage of the poster- which came to define Margaret Thatcher’s victorious election campaign.
Labour’s tax bombshell
The Conservative’s ’ 1992 Tax Bombshell poster helped secure another election victory
Maurice Saatchi also developed a poster widely credited with swinging the 1992 election in the Conservatives’ favour.
In response to Labour’s budget plans aimed at leaving eight out of ten families better off, the Tories created a giant poster of a bomb and the tagline: “Labour’s tax bombshell: You’d pay £1,250 more tax a year under Labour.”
It tapped into voters’ concerns that Labour’s tax and spending plans would hurt ordinary people, and helped to propel John Major to an unexpected victory.
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Tony Blair’s eyes
The Blair devil eyes campaign created a lot of noise but ultimately didn’t gel with the public
Not all the Conservatives’ attack ads have been successful. The 1997 Tony Blair’s eyes campaign generated many headlines but failed to prevent a Labour landslide victory.
It showed a picture of a smiling Tony Blair with a strip containing his eyes torn away and replaced with demon eyes. “New Labour, New Danger,” ran the slogan beneath.
An ad industry magazine named it their campaign of the year, claiming it had successfully played on public doubts about Mr Blair as well as generating £5m worth of publicity on the back of £125,000 spend.
But the Advertising Standards Authority received 150 complaints, including one from the Bishop of Oxford.
The image also did not gel with voters. Labour won a 179-seat majority at the 1997 election – ending 18 years of Conservative government
Be Afraid
A Labour poster depicting Tory leader William Hague’s face with the hair style of Margaret Thatcher
In previous elections, Labour adverts were generally seen as being one step behind the more ruthless attacks from their opponents.
But that changed when Blair recruited top ad executive Trevor Beattie – whose famous work included the Wonderbra “Hello Boys” poster and French Connection’s “FCUK” campaign.
Beattie was also the brains behind Labour’s 2001 “Be Afraid” posters depicting Tory leader William Hague with Thatcher’s hair at No 10.
While Blair reportedly had concerns the campaign was flippant, his communications director, Alistair Campbell, persuaded him it was funny while making a “really powerful negative point”.
Gene Hunt
This ad backfired on Labour during the 2010 election
Labour rolled up its sleeves again in 2010, with a poster depicting then Tory leader David Cameron as Gene Hunt, the politically incorrect star of Ashes to Ashes.
Cameron was pictured above the words: “Don’t let him take Britain back to the 1980s.”
But the move backfired when the Tories adopted the image and replaced the slogan with: “Fire up the Quattro. It’s time for change.”
Miliband in Salmond’s pocket
In 2015, the Tories ran ads depicting Ed Miliband as being in the pocket of the SNP
In 2015, having lost the 2010 election, Labour said it would not use Cameron in any of its advertising and focus on “issues not personalities”.
But the Tories made no such promise and depicted Ed Miliband in Alex Salmond’s pocket, in posters warning about the threat of an SNP-Labour coalition.
Although Miliband ruled this out, the message cut through to the public and dominated much of the general election debate.
An internal inquiry into Labour’s 2015 election defeat said allowing the Conservatives to raise the threat of the SNP in government impacted the result.
Corbyn ‘chlorinated chicken’
While some political strategists argue negative attacks are key to winning elections, MPs have expressed concern they can drag down standards in public debate, isolating voters.
In September 2019, the Conservatives were accused of “silly playground behaviour” by their own party after launching a campaign depicting Jeremy Corbyn as a chicken over his decision to block an early general election.
The Conservatives’ Twitter account shared a doctored image of the former Labour leader in a chicken suit, with the caption: “Hey (KFC), we’ve found an even bigger chicken than you.”
Brexit bus
Vote Leave’s NHS Brexit Bus claim was one of the most contentious claims during the referendum
Not all of the most memorable political adverts in recent years have been attacks.
The claim that the NHS would get an extra £350m a week if the UK left the EU, emblazoned on the side of a big red bus, was a key element of the successful Vote Leave campaign.
While factually dubious it sent a message to the public that Britain sends a lot of money to Europe that could be spent on domestic issues – something which cut through to ordinary voters.
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As Sky’s political correspondent Rob Powell points out, Labour’s recent controversial claim that Rishi Sunak doesn’t want to see child abusers jailed is a tactic taken straight out of Vote Leave playbook.
Broadly speaking, this works by disseminating dubious and inflammatory content, waiting for a backlash that amplifies the message before sending out spokespeople to stand by the campaign and give it a longer media shelf life.
The result is that amid the maelstrom of outrage and the process of journalists picking apart the accuracy of the suggestions, most ordinary voters only really perceive the core message.
Labour party Tweet
In 2016, that message was that the UK sends a lot of money to the EU.
In Labour’s recent case, it’s that the Tories have gone soft on crime.
UK
‘It’s just nasty’: Birmingham residents ‘overwhelmed’ by foul stench and massive rats as bins strike rumbles on
In parts of Birmingham, the stench is overwhelming – enough to make you heave.
At a block of flats in Highgate, in Birmingham city centre, we find a mountain of bin liners full of rubbish spewing out of the cavernous bin store, which is normally locked.
Mickel comes out to speak to us, while all around bin liners lie open, with the contents for all to see, including used nappies and rotting food.
Mickel says they’ve had ‘foxes and rats, literally the size of cats’
Outside Mickel’s flat in Highgate, bin liners lie open, spewing out rubbish
We both find it hard to keep talking amid the awful smell.
“We’ve had foxes and rats, literally the size of cats, flies, it’s just nasty, something needs to be done,” he says.
Chris says the situation is ‘overwhelming’ as she’s ‘terrified of rats’
Around the corner, I meet Chris, in her dressing gown, popping the bins into her bin store beneath her flat before work.
She unlocks it, and although it isn’t bursting out on to the street yet, it is getting full.
She says the situation is “overwhelming” as she’s “terrified of rats”. But, even so, she has sympathy for the striking bin workers.
“It’s not an easy job; they must have a heart of gold to do that job,” she says.
“Pay them whatever they need, they deserve it.”
Striking bin workers at Lifford Lane tip, south of the city centre
There’s an awful smell coming from a mountain of bin liners outside Mickel’s flat in Highgate
At Lifford Lane tip, south of the city centre, Brigette has pulled up alongside picketing workers. The back seat of her car is full of rubbish.
She apologises for the terrible waft, mixed with air freshener.
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Bin workers strike explained
“It’s very pungent, isn’t it? Not nice,” she admits.
“It’s unfortunate, I have some sympathies for all the parties, but, equally, we have a duty of care to stay clean and tidy.”
She says she has her rubbish and that of her elderly aunt and plans to make weekly trips to the tip until a resolution in this pay dispute between the council and the Unite union is found.
UK
‘US is our closest ally’, Jonathan Reynolds says in reaction to Trump tariffs – but ‘nothing off the table’
The US is “our closest ally” but “nothing is off the table” in response to Donald Trump’s 10% tariffs on imports from the UK, the business secretary has said.
In a statement following the US president’s nearly hour-long address to the world, Business and Trade Secretary Jonathan Reynolds said: “We will always act in the best interests of UK businesses and consumers.
“That’s why, throughout the last few weeks, the government has been fully focused on negotiating an economic deal with the United States that strengthens our existing fair and balanced trading relationship.”
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Mr Reynolds reiterated the statements from the prime minister and his cabinet over the past few days, saying the US is “our closest ally”, and the government’s approach is to “remain calm and committed to doing this deal, which we hope will mitigate the impact of what has been announced today”.
Business Secretary Jonathan Reynolds says “nothing is off the table” following the tariffs announcement. Pic: PA
But he continued: “We have a range of tools at our disposal, and we will not hesitate to act. We will continue to engage with UK businesses, including on their assessment of the impact of any further steps we take.
“Nobody wants a trade war, and our intention remains to secure a deal. But nothing is off the table, and the government will do everything necessary to defend the UK’s national interest.”
‘Get back round the negotiating table’, say Tories
The Conservative Party’s shadow business and trade secretary described the US president’s announcement as “disappointing news which will worry working families across the country”.
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Sky’s Ed Conway examines how economies across the world are impacted by tariffs
Andrew Griffith hit out at the government for having “failed to negotiate with President Trump’s team for too many months after the election, failed to keep our experienced top trade negotiator, and failed to get a deal to avoid the imposition of these tariffs by our closest trading partner”.
“The chancellor’s emergency budget of just a week ago with its inadequate headroom is now at risk, casting uncertainty about more taxes or spending cuts,” he continued. “Sadly, it is British businesses and workers who will pay the price for Labour’s failure.”
He called on ministers to “swallow their pride” and “get back round the negotiating table to agree a fair deal to protect jobs and consumers in both the UK and the US alike”.
Liberal Democrat leader Sir Ed Davey has reacted furiously to Mr Trump’s announcement of a “destructive trade war”, and called on the government to stand up against “Trump’s attempts to divide and rule”.
“The prime minister should bring our Commonwealth and European partners together in a coalition of the willing against Trump’s tariffs, using retaliatory tariffs where necessary and signing new trade deals with each other where possible.”
Speaking on Wednesday evening at a White House event entitled ‘Make America Wealthy Again’, the US president unleashed sweeping tariffs across the globe.
Mr Trump held up a chart detailing the worst offenders – which also showed the new tariffs the US would be imposing.
The UK’s rate of 10% was perhaps a shot across the bow over the 20% VAT rate, though the president’s suggested a 10% tariff imbalance between the two nations. Nonetheless, tariffs of 10% could directly reduce UK GDP by between 0.01% and 0.06%, according to Capital Economics.
A 25% duty on all car imports from around the world is also being imposed from midnight in the US – 5am on Thursday, UK time.
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The UK government had been hoping to negotiate an economic deal with the US in a bid to avoid the tariffs, but to no avail. The government says negotiations will continue.
The Confederation of British Industry said “negotiating stronger trading relationships with all like-minded partners will be foundational to any success”.
The business secretary is expected to make a statement in the House of Commons on Thursday, and we are also expecting to hear from the prime minister.
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