‘Politics of fear’ as UK election ads go on the attack

“Politics of fear” usually refers to tactics that spur the electorate to vote one way by suggesting that to do otherwise would threaten their individual well-being.

In the UK, there has been another usage of late, with the phrase deployed to describe "fearful politicians". David Cameron is accused of "cowering" after making one excuse too many for why he won't debate other party leaders on TV.

It does seem like a PR mistake by this ex-PR man. But his original logic was clear enough. Why put himself into an unpredictable, control-ceding position when he and his party still have their old friend – negative campaigning – to unleash?

The Conservatives have turned once again to M&C Saatchi, the agency that houses some of the same brains that resided at Saatchi & Saatchi during the Thatcher era. And the Tories' admen have already come out with a classic of the genre: a poster with the words "A Recovering Economy" being smashed with a wrecking ball. "Don't Let Labour Wreck It" is the slogan.

It is vintage stuff. Indeed, the line barely deviates from one that did the rounds before the 1987 election: “Britain’s great, don’t let Labour wreck it”, which in turn was inspired by a 1959 ad, “Britain’s a success. Don’t let Labour ruin it”.

So Britain in 2015 is no longer “great” or “a success”, merely “recovering”. And there are no new ideas.

Elsewhere, it's not hard to get the impression that creatives have been itching to unveil their saved-up jokes. Witness another Tory effort, published this week: an image of Labour leader Ed Miliband popping up out of Alex Salmond's suit pocket like a cartoon mouse. "The frightening prospect we must avoid," tweeted Cameron.

Some people called it “cheap” and some sighed that it was “meme-ready” (too easily spoofed). And to anyone familiar with the fact that Salmond is no longer the leader of the Scottish National Party, it might have seemed plain odd. But then, this is advertising. Sometimes getting a reaction is all that counts.

In a compelling new book, Mad Men & Bad Men: What Happened When British Politics Met Advertising, author Sam Delaney presents a backbiting, ultra- competitive world in which admen lap up the credit for election victories that almost certainly would have been won without their help. Conversely, ads that succeed in increasing the share of vote for the losing side are forgotten, leaving their creators to rue "bad product" and "unwinnable" elections.

Delaney notes that the Tories' most famous attack poster, 1978's "Labour Isn't Working" by Andrew Rutherford, was crucial to the rise of Saatchi & Saatchi. The author is less sure about its oft-cited influence on Labour's decision to delay the general election until 1979.

Advertising still matters. It’s not that voters see a brilliant ad and have a lightbulb moment about where to place their “x”. What happens is the brilliant ad gets picked up by the media and becomes part of the election narrative.

"Labour Isn't Working" is remembered because then-chancellor Denis Healey was furious when he discovered the pictured dole queue was posed by Young Conservatives – and the furore meant the ad was reproduced again in the press.

Saatchi & Saatchi/M&C Saatchi are true believers in the power of the negative ad to goad, to distract and to influence. But Jeremy Sinclair, credited by many as the creative talent behind the Saatchi brothers' success, distinguishes between his own aggressive ads, which "tried to have a touch of humour about them somewhere", and the "bad taste" anti- immigration posters created for the Tories by another agency in 2005.

There is a difference, Sinclair tells Delaney, between chucking a tomato at a politician and “making people hate their neighbours”.

It's a notable criticism because those posters were overseen by a man named Lynton Crosby, an Australian expert in the politics of fear, and he's in charge of the current Tory campaign as well. M&C Saatchi-devised ads are just one of his weapons; another is negative YouTube videos that can be used to target voters in particular locations and circumvent the TV ban on paid-for election ads.

Mad Men & Bad Men keeps coming back to the same point: Attack ads are the ones that sway floating voters, and failures such as the Tony Blair "Demon Eyes" poster are exceptions that prove that rule.

So the UK electorate will be told repeatedly that Miliband is a woeful nerd and Cameron is a contemptuous “chicken”. And then, as with all close elections, the outcome will hang on exactly how afraid voters in marginal constituencies are feeling that day.