"You can get it if you really want" (and become a friend of the Tories)

You can get it if you really want is the theme of a £500,000 upbeat advertising campaign that the Conservatives are launching on Facebook, on billboards across Britain and in tomorrow's national press.  Versions of the two ads that you see below will be appearing in seven national newspapers and many regional newspapers:

There are ten themes to the Tory campaign: the NHS, policing, borrowing and the economy, inheritance tax, stamp duty, pensions, benefits reform, a tougher approach to immigration, green energy and classroom discipline.  No mention of Europe - that's deliberate with the explanation that the Tories are currently working with the cross-party IWantAReferendum campaign.

The party is also introducing a new form of recruitment: Friends of the Conservatives.  People will be able to register as friends of the party for a minimum of £1 and in return they'll receive a weekly online newsletter and suggestions of how they can get involved in their communities.

A few reactions to all of this:

1. A half-a-million pound investment is a big deal for a British political party; this far from an election.
2. It's a positive and upbeat campaign and it's very broad - a good, balanced mix of traditional issues (tax, crime, immigration) with newer messages (protecting the NHS, encouraging greenery).
3. But is it too broad?  The Tories still lack a big theme.  We think the party would be better to pick fewer, more defining messages and pursue them with hare-like boldness.  We don't necessarily have to pick those defining issues now but we still believe that a war on crime and protecting the NHS would be good bets.
4. The Friends idea is a good one.  The age of mass membership political parties is over.  CCHQ doesn't have up-to-date Tory membership numbers but the guess is that it's probably still down from 2005.   Our preference, though, would be for people to be invited to be Friends/ Supporters of Conservative campaigns rather than the party.  This is the age of single issue campaigns.  We think people will give money to vigorous campaigns on issues that they really believe in.  Those campaigns will need good websites to give the campaigns life.  Conservatives.com remains an uninteresting site - too focused on us and not the voters and their concerns.

Comments

[Comstock]

And you thought 'things can only get better' was bad?

Laughable.

[kow tow]

Its ok but too similar to the 2005 Election campaign (5 themes)

The common link is Hilton and focus groups.

I'd rather see the party do something original and really believes in. Could still be compassionate conservatism ut a new idea not diktat by focus group and cliche!

[Afleitch]

Actually it's pretty good. 'Things Can Only Get Better' was a slogan without substance. This campaign adresses issues that matter to people in a neat and accessable way; help for first time buyers etc. If it gets the message across then it's a worthwhile exercise.

[Mark Fulford]

hare-like boldness

I can’t remember seeing a hare that wasn’t fleeing.

[Jon H]

The song is a bit lame. I think the best song thats never been used for a political campaign is 'We Want the Same Thing' by Belinda Carlisle. Look it up on youtube and listen to the lyrics, you'll see what i mean!

[ChrisD]

Excellent stuff, and on a broader message from the start which does not button hole us like some past campaigns. Combine this campaign with an improved and disciplined fast response from the press office which is able to produce a member of the relevant shadow cabinet brief and we will have got the balance right.

[Dave B]

Forgive my ignorance, but why Facebook? Isn't it a USA focussed site?

Wouldn't they be better off using Google Adwords, and targeting UK IP addresses?

*NB - I run a website, and the advertising revenue comes from Google Adsense, so I'm not entirely impartial.*

[Oberon Houston]

Comstock: I do like your comments on this site, normally..
Ok I'm lying, but who have we got so wrong?.. Is it Brown... is it the Wizard of Oz. Big Curtains, up we go.... Commentary please?.....

[Dave B]

Re: friends.

I think this is:

1. Acknowledging the Status Quo (I'm not a Conservative member, but they send me donation requests from time to time, and I do donate.)

2. Build up their email address database of UK voters.

[Oberon Houston]

Dave B. Why don't you join the party and then you can complain about the donations all you want... We need you (and you us) more than you (we) know.

[Dave B]

@Oberon Houston

I'm not complaining about the donation requests. I'm happy to give them money from time to time. (It tends to by linked to 'raffle tickets', which I rather like, very polite, very British, way of asking for money :) ) As to joining, I think I did once, and I'm now 'lapsed', which is presumably how I found my way onto their junk mail list.

[Dave B]

Re-reading the article, I see the 'friends' scheme has more to it than I thought.

"...in return they'll receive a weekly online newsletter and suggestions of how they can get involved in their communities."

It'll be interesting to see what comes of it.

[Tony Makara]

Every great business is a great business because it had a great product to sell, and it took great pains to advertise that product. Politics has to be sold to people, to be sold as a lifestyle thing. People have to see in politics something that reflects their lives, their concerns, their aspirations. Political parties need to sell themselves, as a concept, as a set of ideas. Such political advertizing needs to be a visual art in a visual age. The images above are excellent and articulate the concept of family in the blink of an eye, something the most erudite politician can never do. Instant contact with voters in an instant age. They say, "we are you, just as you are us", the ads represent a connection, a fusion of ideals, from party to people, and from people to party.

[Chad Noble]

Oh please.

Brown=crap
Cameron=<(possibly)Marginally less crap

And you want us non politicos to give a fark?

[TFA Tory]

What I really want is a big tax cut but Boy Gideon is too frit to promise that.

[Mark Heenan]

At last Cameron has finally got us to the stage where people are prepared to listen to the Party, and is finally able to do all the stuff we should have been doing five years ago. Hallelujah!

[Serf]

The song has the right message. Its all about trying hard to get what you want. Very Conservative, but in an attractive package.

"We will help you get what you want" is what we should be all about.

[MHDH]

Editor, I think you are correct. It feels vaery disjointed and lacking a USP. It also feels, or is it me, just a shade juvenile.

The Friends part is interesting. Probably recognizes the death of local associations and mass membership political parties.

[James Maskell]

I really dont like the immigration one. Its the reaction that others had with the "Its not racist..." advertising. Please Cameron, pull the immigration one back. Its going to attract accusations of racism and dog whistling. Its horrid.

In general the Conservatives seem to have stuck to the core issues of crime, Europe and tax, which look pretty safe already. I think that Cameron is not talking enough about schools and hospitals. There hasnt been a push on hospitals since the Maidstone crisis... and schools have been avoided since their publication of the Agenda.

Oh yes, Im talking like a moderniser...

[EML]

I think it's excellent. Simple slogans with nice piccies.

I don't think it's too broad or disjointed, being as though we are probably at least 18 months ahead of an election.

[ACT]

Wait and watch: the nugatory role actual, paying Tory members still just about have in selecting candidates will, if we get any 'friends' at all, be diluted yet more. This stunt has only one purpose: to stop people foolish enough to bother joining the party from having any predominant say in who Tory candidates should be.

[Michael Rutherford]

I'm not at all surprised it's broad, it's a recruitment campaign. People will join the party for different reasons, it's not going to just be people primarily interested in the NHS or people primarily interested in crime.

[Richard]

"Forgive my ignorance, but why Facebook? Isn't it a USA focussed site?"

Pretty much everyone I know is on Facebook. It started off as a US site but it now has millions of UK members.

[HF]

Editor

I note you welcome the "Friends" initiative but what systems have been put in place to link with the Associations so that the "community information" and co-operation promised can be fulfilled?

Labour tried a similar initiative a few years ago and it floundered precisely because there were no links to their CLPs.

I am worried that yet another good idea will fail because no one at CCHQ understands about the need to sort out the systems to support it.

[Richard Lowe]

Fantastic - gives simple, brief outlines of 10 policies - those that appeal to long time Tories, and those new to the party.

Very positive outlook!

[Julian Price]

Just spotted one Wikipedia's page about Jimmy Cliff:

His recording of 'You Can Get It If You Really Want' was used as a campaign anthem by the Sandinista National Liberation Front in the 1990 election in Nicaragua (they lost). It was also adopted by the British Conservative Party during their annual conference in October, 2007. It is unclear whether Mr Cliff endorsed either party.

[Damien Mckee]

Another good song to use would be Roxette's 'Listen To Your Heart'!