New Labour, New Danger was an advertising campaign run in the United Kingdom by the Conservative Party during the run up to the 1997 general election. It was conceived by creative director Martin Casson [1] at advertising agency M&C Saatchi, and refers to the Labour Party's "New Labour" slogan. [2]
The main poster used in the campaign involved a picture of Labour Party leader Tony Blair on a black background with a strip of the poster appearing to be torn off across the eyes of Blair. The eyes were replaced with a pair of "demon eyes" with the slogan "New Labour New Danger" positioned below the picture. [3]
A later poster used the "demon eyes" on a purse and accompanied it with the slogan "New Labour, New Taxes". [4]
The advert was praised by Campaign , who judged it had completed its objective of questioning Blair's character. The advertisement was claimed to have gained the Conservatives £5 million worth of free publicity. [5] Despite being declared 'the best advert of the year' it was counterproductive, [6] and a poll by the poster site company Maiden Outdoor found 64 per cent disliked the campaign. [7]
The advert was condemned by the Labour Party as negative advertising. [8] In September 1996, former Conservative prime minister Edward Heath also criticized the advert. [9] The Conservatives went on to experience their worst election defeat for more than half a century, with some journalists speculating that the poster contrasted unfavourably with Labour's more positive campaign. [10]
The Advertising Standards Authority received 150 complaints about the Blair advert, including one from the Bishop of Oxford. The ASA upheld the complaints and instructed the Conservatives to withdraw the poster, stating they believed it portrayed Blair as "dishonest and sinister" [4] and also because the campaign did not have Blair's permission to use his image. [11] In 1999, the ASA decided to stop regulating political advertising, citing this advert as a particularly difficult case and saying: "The free flow of argument in the cut and thrust of open debate is the best antidote to political advertising that misleads or offends." [12]
In August 2012, it was announced that the "demon eyes" design would be used in the American film The Campaign . [13]
The Labour Party's workers founded an amateur football team called Demon Eyes F.C. named after the adverts. The football team once won Thames League Division 1, before being disbanded. [14]
The 2001 United Kingdom general election was held on Thursday 7 June 2001, four years after the previous election on 1 May 1997, to elect 659 members to the House of Commons. The governing Labour Party led by the prime minister Tony Blair was re-elected to serve a second term in government with another landslide victory with a 165-seat majority, returning 412 members of Parliament versus 418 from the previous election, a net loss of six seats, although with a significantly lower turnout than before—59.4%, compared to 71.6% at the previous election.
The 1997 United Kingdom general election was held on Thursday, 1 May 1997. The governing Conservative Party led by Prime Minister John Major was defeated in a landslide by the opposition Labour Party led by Tony Blair, achieving a 179-seat majority and a total of 418 seats.
Norman Beresford Tebbit, Baron Tebbit, is a retired British politician. A member of the Conservative Party, he served in the Cabinet from 1981 to 1987 as Secretary of State for Employment (1981–1983), Secretary of State for Trade and Industry (1983–1985), and Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster and Chairman of the Conservative Party (1985–1987). He was a Member of Parliament (MP) from 1970 to 1992, representing the constituencies of Epping (1970–1974) and Chingford (1974–1992).
The 1979 United Kingdom general election was held on Thursday 3 May 1979 to elect 635 members to the House of Commons. The election was held following the defeat of the Labour government in a no-confidence motion on 28 March 1979, six months before the Parliament was due for dissolution in October 1979.
The 1987 United Kingdom general election was held on Thursday 11 June 1987, to elect 650 members to the House of Commons. The election was the third consecutive general election victory for the Conservative Party, who won a majority of 102 seats and second landslide under the leadership of Margaret Thatcher, who became the first Prime Minister since the Earl of Liverpool in 1820 to lead a party into three successive electoral victories.
In British politics, Blairism is the political ideology of Tony Blair, the former leader of the Labour Party and Prime Minister between 1997 and 2007, and those that support him, known as Blairites. It entered the New Penguin English Dictionary in 2000. Elements of the ideology include investment in public services, expansionary efforts in education to encourage social mobility, and increased actions in terms of mass surveillance alongside a ramping up of law enforcement powers, both of these latter changes advocated in the context of fighting organized crime and terrorism. Blairites have additionally been known for their contrast with the traditional support for socialism by those believing in left-wing politics, with Blair himself and others speaking out against the nationalisation of major industries and against also heavy regulations of business operations. On foreign policy, Blairism is supportive of close relations with the United States and liberal interventionism, including advocacy for both the Iraq war and the War in Afghanistan (2001–2021).
Saatchi and Saatchi is a British multinational communications and advertising agency network with 114 offices in 76 countries and over 6,500 staff. It was founded in 1970 and is currently headquartered in London. The parent company of the agency group was known as Saatchi and Saatchi PLC from 1976 to 1994, was listed on the New York Stock Exchange until 2000 and, for a time, was a constituent of the FTSE 100 Index. In 2000, the group was acquired by the Publicis Groupe. In 2005, the group went private.
Maurice Nathan Saatchi, Baron Saatchi is a British businessman, and with his brother, Charles, co-founder of the advertising agencies Saatchi & Saatchi and M&C Saatchi.
Negative campaigning is the process of deliberately spreading negative information about someone or something to worsen the public image of the described. A colloquial, and somewhat more derogatory, term for the practice is mudslinging.
The 1997 Uxbridge by-election was a parliamentary by-election held in July 1997 to elect a new Member of Parliament (MP) for the constituency of Uxbridge in Greater London, England. The seat was held by the Conservative Party, their first such victory since 1989.
The 2005 United Kingdom general election was held on Thursday 5 May 2005, to elect 646 members to the House of Commons. The governing Labour Party led by the prime minister Tony Blair won its third consecutive victory, with Blair becoming the second Labour leader after Harold Wilson to form three majority governments. However, its majority fell to 66 seats; the majority it won four years earlier had been of 167 seats. The UK media interpreted the results as an indicator of a breakdown in trust in the government, and especially in Blair.
Dave the Chameleon was the British Labour Party's advertising slogan, and the basis of their political campaign, for the 2006 local elections. The campaign attempted to portray the recently elected leader of the Conservative Party and leader of the Opposition, David Cameron, as an ever-changing populist who will be whatever people want him to be. It was criticised as being a particularly negative form of campaigning, though some have disputed this. In particular, the BBC political editor Nick Robinson said "you say, the public hate negative advertising. To which I say – nonsense, poppycock and balderdash", adding that "they remember it when it's good".
Timothy Montgomerie is a British political activist, blogger, and columnist. He is best known as the co-founder of the Centre for Social Justice and as creator of the ConservativeHome website, which he edited from 2005 until 2013, when he left to join The Times. He was formerly the newspaper's comment editor, but resigned in March 2014. On 17 February 2016, Montgomerie resigned his membership of the Conservative Party, citing the leadership's stance on Europe, which was then supportive of EU membership. In 2019, he was briefly a special adviser to Prime Minister Boris Johnson, advising on social justice issues.
Stephen Glenn Charles Hilton is a British and American political commentator, former political adviser, and contributor for Fox News Channel. He served as director of strategy for the British Prime Minister David Cameron from 2010 to 2012. Hilton hosted The Next Revolution, a weekly current affairs show for Fox News from 2017 to 2023. He is a proponent of what he calls "positive populism" and a vocal supporter of former U.S. President Donald Trump. He was a co-founder of Crowdpac, but stepped down as CEO in 2018 due to conflicting values with the company.
Not flash, just Gordon was an advertising slogan and campaign used by the British Labour Party in September and October 2007. The campaign was created by advertising agency Saatchi & Saatchi in preparation for a speculated snap general election after Labour Party leader Gordon Brown succeeded Tony Blair as prime minister in June. The campaign intended to win over the electorate by implicitly comparing Brown with Blair, dissociating the former from the latter's demonstrative self-presentation, and also implicitly compared Brown with Conservative Party leader David Cameron. It made Brown's perceived awkward persona a strength and his perceived lack of charisma and limited communication skills a virtue. The campaign ended after Brown said he would not call a snap election on 6 October.
Jeremy Theodorson Sinclair is a British businessman and advertising executive who was a founding director in 1995 of ad agency M&C Saatchi, having earlier been one of the founders of Saatchi & Saatchi in 1970.
"One more heave" was a slogan used by British Liberal Party leader Jeremy Thorpe during the October 1974 general election and a phrase used to describe the political strategy of John Smith, leader of the Labour Party from July 1992 until his death in May 1994.
"Labour Isn't Working" was an advertising campaign in the United Kingdom. It was run by the Conservative Party in 1978 in anticipation that Labour Party Prime Minister James Callaghan would call a general election. It was revived for the general election campaign the next year, after the government lost a vote of no confidence in the wake of the Winter of Discontent. It was designed by advertising agency Saatchi & Saatchi.
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