Is Anyone Impressed By Labour’S Latest Election Broadcast?

[naomi24]

Its worryingly vulgar puerility says much about the mentality behind it. Vote Labour? I think not.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/politics/labour/10814170/Labour-declares-class-war-with-B-movie-attack-on-Tory-toffs.html

[Ken4155]

I thought it was quite amusing and quite possibly the only PPB i have ever watched in it's entirity. Did it help me make up my mind about where to put my X on the day? No, of course it didn't. Is anyone actually persuaded to vote for one party or another based purely on PPBs? Surely not. Lighten up, people.

[DaisyNonna]

Found it embarrassing. Needlessly rude.

[Gromit]

// it's aimed at people who cling doggedly to Old Labour ideology //

Those people will vote Labour anyway. It would be pointless advertising to people who are already on their side. The pount of these broadcasts is to win people to your side who would normally vote for one of the orher parties. This skit co pletely failed to do that, which is what I meant by it was badly targetted.

[naomi24]

Gromit, true – but then it does serve to wind them up even further by exacerbating the ‘us’ and ’them’ myth.

//is being fabulously wealthy (as many Labour MPs are), an dbeing a toff completely different things.//

Apparently so. According to a recent thread, Labour MPs who have spent their careers condemning the wealthy but, having done very nicely, at the end of it all hypocritically relish the opportunity of a seat in the House of Lords are beyond criticism. Funny that.

[ludwig]

// The point of these broadcasts is to win people to your side who would normally vote for one of the orher parties //

Perhaps it's aimed at people who've never voted before. They probably think they can capture the young voter's attention with peurile humour on account of their brains not being fully formed yet.

[Svejk]

ooh. that was exactly what I was thinking, Ludwig.

[aelmpvw]

someone somewhere may be waiting for a positive post about labour's latest election broadcast ... they may have a long wait

[Gromit]

// Perhaps it's aimed at people who've never voted before. They probably think they can capture the young voter's attention //

I don't think so. Television comedy aimed at younger adults has its own visual style. It is bright and quick and snappy. This Labour advert wasn't 'Little Britain'. It seemed to me to be aimed at older viewers. It was in black and white and peddled a very old stereotype of upper class twits. It didn't look like a modern Cabinet Meeting, it looked like a 1950s caricature of one.

The film was a muddled mess.

[ludwig]

A failure on every level perhaps. An attempt at humour aimed at young people, put together by old tw4ts, that don't understand young people's humour. Who knows.

[anotheoldgit]

Gromit

/// Labour voters might resent Cameron and Clegg for their inherited wealth, and never having done a proper days work in their lives. ///

Then why don't they also resent those Labour members for their inherited wealth, and never having done a proper days work in their lives, as you yourself have correctly shown them to be?

[Kromovaracun]

Good god. You can tell Labour aren't listening to their spin doctors anymore (which should be a good thing but not when they throw out common sense with the bathwater, so to speak.)

This government is abjectly, unrelentingly, awful. It is populated by some of the most stupid (and that's not a term I use lightly) and downright despicable people currently in Parliament. And yet Labour still manages to fail miserably and critiquing them.

What a bunch of losers. How utterly depressing.

[Kromovaracun]

"An attempt at humour aimed at young people, put together by old tw4ts, that don't understand young people's humour."

I agree completely

You can just imagine the meeting in which this fantastic idea was dreamed up. I bet someone around the table *honestly* thought this was going to become some kind of youtube hit because they think young people are all mindless cretins or something.

As I said in another thread, the only thing even slightly pushing me towards voting Labour is that it does not have Michael Gove or IDS in it. But this kind of thing pushes me firmly back into "spoiled ballot" territory.

[jim360]

Not that I'm going to disagree with you, Kromo, but why particularly does IDS put you off the Conservatives?

[ludwig]

// I bet someone around the table *honestly* thought this was going to become some kind of youtube hit //

It probably will be but not for the reason they imagined. Millions be wanting to see if it's really as godawful as everyone's saying.

[anotheoldgit]

Kromovaracun

/// This government is abjectly, unrelentingly, awful. It is populated by ///

/// This government is abjectly, unrelentingly, awful. It is populated by some of the most stupid (and that's not a term I use lightly) and downright despicable people currently in Parliament. And yet Labour still manages to fail miserably and critiquing them. ///

Wow for saying that you don't use the word 'Stupid' lightly, you are not averse at issuing out much more offensive terms such as "despicable people"

[Gromit]

It seems to have been cobbled together by Advertising Agency types and people living in Los Angeles.

// The Labour Party has released a dramatic party political broadcast in the style of a 50s science fiction film that slams Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg as spineless.

The four-minute spot is filmed in black and white, and has actors playing caricature versions of leading Conservative and Liberal Democrat MPs. //

http://www.marketingmagazine.co.uk/article/1293307/labour-lampoons-uncredible-shrinking-man-nick-clegg-50s-sci-fi-parody-film

http://www.luckygenerals.com/

http://www.hungryman.com/directors/usa/ric-cantor/bio/

[Gromit]

AOG

// /// Labour voters might resent Cameron and Clegg for their inherited wealth, and never having done a proper days work in their lives. ///

Then why don't they also resent those Labour members for their inherited wealth, and never having done a proper days work in their lives, as you yourself have correctly shown them to be? //

I do not think it is common knowledge that Margaret Hodge has a vast fortune. But it is common knowledge that Cameron is posh.

An inevitable repost to the film is to point out Labour's millionaires, as I did earlier. I don't think that was the intention of the broadcast, so Labour have rather shot hemselves in the foot.

[youngmafbog]

//An inevitable repost to the film is to point out Labour's millionaires//

cue the next tory or Lib Dem PPB ?

[Kromovaracun]

AOG/Jim

I consider Iain Duncan Smith a despicable person. This is largely because of the disgraceful retroactive law he rushed through a while ago in order to stop his department from compensating people who they had (illegally) been penalizing for not working for free.

Basically he introduced a policy that was a terrible idea from the start, listened to absolutely nobody, and then backed out of the consequences like a miserable little coward using an extremely dubious form of legislation.

http://www.theguardian.com/society/2013/mar/15/dwp-law-change-jobseekers-poundland

http://www.politics.co.uk/news/2013/03/19/ids-emergency-jobseeker-law-sparks-civil-liberties-outrage

He is also remarkably dishonest and was caught out by the Stats agency for making statistical claims that were simply not true (the following link will open a PDF - it is two letters to IDS and the TUC from the UK Statistics Agency. If you don't want to open a PDF, it's covered in my other link below):

http://www.statisticsauthority.gov.uk/reports---correspondence/correspondence/letter-from-andrew-dilnot-to-rt-hon-iain-duncan-smith-mp-090513.pdf

And this was only after a long stream of dishonesty with figures - which IDS is remarkably incompetent at, yet has some kind of toxic aversion to telling the truth - see here for more examples:

http://www.economist.com/blogs/blighty/2013/04/government-statistics

And even before that there was his outlandish claim to have existed "on the breadline" despite being in an extremely wealthy marriage.

These are the reasons I consider IDS a despicable person.

[Gromit]

Ymb

To devote a PPB to highlight that the Conservative and Lib/Dems are toffs is a waste of time and resources. It shows Labour have a confused message or no message at all. I don't think it is worthy of a counter PPB by the other parties.