Almost perfect

Credit where credit's due.  Today's debt campaign launch was almost perfect:

The ad is clever (although I hope we're not spending too much on billboard placements).

The debt message is now being pursued relentlessly. David Cameron is comfortable with the message. It's a winning message. Repeat, repeat, repeat and it will be remembered by the public.

This was much more than an ad launch.  It was backed up with substance.  George Osborne launched a paper - Labour's Debt Crisis - detailing Brown's borrowing.

It was multimedia.  There was a video - two videos in fact - as well as a billboard.

There was a sense of theatre to today.  It wasn't just another Cameron speech.  The hall was huge.  There was music at the beginning.  It was almost like an election launch.

David Cameron performed well but today was also a team effort.  It was interesting after the formal event to watch a host of frontbenchers working the room - talking to journalists and invited party donors.

One thing missing: Anger.  I still want to see David Cameron get angry (Baby P-style) at the waste of the Labour years.  He still seems too reasonable.  Too detached.  What Brown has done to this country is unforgivable.  Benedict Brogan disagrees with me.  He sees David Cameron as "mad as hell".  I'm still waiting for a fifth gear performance but today was encouraging for a partisan Conservative.  Very encouraging.

PS This was the other video at the launch:

Tim Montgomerie

Comments

[Malcolm Dunn]

'Good TEAM effort'.Very good news, at last!

[Andrew Lilico]

Excellent video - except...at the very end there, it looked like there was an English flag! Can't have been intended, surely?

The government has really blown it, a ridiculous accumulation of debt. This could be the end of the Labour Party.

[jennywren]

AT last! something positive that makes me really proud to be a Conservative.

The only thing that takes the gilt off the gingerbread is the tragedy that is 'this Labour Government's' total mismanagement of this country in so many respects.

[Iain]

Yes an excellent poster, like Saatchi's 'Labour isn't working' it captures the essence of the problem.

[Thelma Matuk]

Congratulations to David Cameron and his marketing team. I think the poster campaign and both the videos are excellent. It highlights all our key messages very effectively and will make the electorate THINK about the consequences if they were to vote anything other than Conservative. I know a lot of hard work and effort has gone into the preparation and delivery of this. So thankyou to all the people we never see for a truly excellent campaign.

[Patsy Sergeant]

I think David Cameron IS angry, very angry, but he doesn't want to react in any way that the media can label in some derogatory fashion (which they would!).

I liked the YouTube film, and showed it to a young painter(decorator), who is working here at the moment. He is not a Brown-type, since he has saved every penny he could, so that he and his girl-friend can get a mortgage (even at the moment) on a small house! And hopefully it is going through.

I have a strong feeling that there is a group of young men within an age group between about twenty to the mid-thirties, that should be introduced and motivated by David Cameron's beliefs, but at the moment think that politics are not for them, and may not even vote. I know four or five young men who fall into that category, and yes they are from a so-called working-class background, but unlike MR. Brown and his dreary, boring Ministers I would not categorise them like that, it is irrelevant!!

But I do wish that there was something, almost akin to 'Politics for Beginners', or a section attached to this website that was NOT patronising, but was able to introduce people to the basics of parliament, government, economics - in terms of how the government gets its money and how it spends it. All those topics and more could be explained in simple terms, and if one had short YouTube films, and a blogging section, it might work, provided someone 'smart' like Jonathan Ross didn't get involved!

I may sound too idealistic, but I have talked to the young men I know, and they are all interested, in the political topics, but the gap between our conversation and what they understand about politics seems to them to be very large!

David Cameron is young enough to be able to motivate young people - out of a suit!

[David Belchamber]

Andrew L, could you kindly clarify for, I suspect, many of us how Brown continues to get away with (i) keeping many large liabilities off-balance sheet (PFIs, Railtrack, public sector pension liabilities etc) and (ii) a reasonably accurate percentage figure for the ratio of government debt to GDP? The TPA recently quoted the latter as exceeding 120%, over twice what GB was admitting to.

It would be good if an external body could slap Brown down over his dodgy facts and figures as Sir Michael Scholar did with the crime figures recently.

[Walaa]

Excellent video and I agree with Andrew Re the flag it looked more England's flag than union Jack!

[Goldie]

I'm not that impressed, Tim (but perhaps I am spoiled because the political ads in the US, where I am primarily based at the moment, are a bit slicker than in the UK).

-First of all, babies are tough imagery. People have strong associations with them. Don't like to politicise them too much. See the ridiculous discussion that ensued on breast feeding in the other thread. Babies distract.
-The Cross of St George (or whatever that was intended to be) at the end of the ad is very odd. Was it conscious? Odd, very odd visual.
-The 'Now For Change' graphic at the end looked rather amateurisch to me (although associating the Tories with 'change', I like).
-"Labour's Debt Crisis": my first response -and I am partisan conservative- was: well, it's the country's debt crisis, isn't it. The ad PRESUPPOSES the argument that the current debt levels are entirely Labour's fault, but it doesn't MAKE the argument. Labour is obviously firing on all cylinders to convince the public this is the result of a crisis born in America, not their fault. That's the argument that must be countered.

-The 'other' video at the presentation was even worse. Much too hard to read, not a powerfool tool of communication. Although there were some good elements (red vs. blue was, the "Change" element there was delivered better).

It all comes down to this: will the Tories find a persuasive economic message. So far they haven't and no slick (or not so slick) ad will be able to change that.

Must try harder.

[Cleethorpes Rock]

An excellent video. I would have liked to see us go a little more interactive, possibly by, at the end, saying:

"To help us change Britain for the better, text your postcode to: 88XXXX"

We get £1 for the text, a phone number and a postcode (so we can determine their constituency, their likely demographic and social grouping). We can then call that person and get them involved.

I've noticed Labour did this on a recent leaflet, but imagine we would have more success with the ploy. Can the technical bods at CCHQ make this happen?

[Norm Brainer]

-The Cross of St George (or whatever that was intended to be) at the end of the ad is very odd. Was it conscious? Odd, very odd visual.

It was blatantly the union flag faded into the conservative theme sky background.

Is this pointing out that it looks like England some more of this disruption from the enemy as they've now failed on the baby's bottle attack?

Well this one is a fail too.

[James]

I've looked closely at the end, and it i quite clearly a Union Flag.

Can you really not see the diagonal red lines...??

I think this is excellent!

[James]

Times has a Populus poll with us on 43

43/33/15

[James]

The poll

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/politics/article5504673.ece

[James]

That's Cons +2 and Lab -2 from last comparable poll.

Cameron leads Brown on 'best Prime Minister going forward after the next election' by 43 to 31

[Pulvertaft]

Most strange. Imagery of England?

Unintentional or blatantly racist I find the inference of Englishness that is contained within this Flash presentation thingy to be deeply offensive and demand that a senior officer investigates. Heaven knows that England is yet another stick to beat the party of England with.

[snegchui]

I am giving up on the understanding of the Political Classes statements. Revert to questions.
Where did that last idiot come from?
I am not of the English but this I say, in the Union of their lands the English are not fairly represented. To hell with you, bring me the tricks of the Tory and their learning true, and I will see you eye to eye boyo.
The English, like their Rugby, are not consistent but when they perform do perform, and when they don't, are English, gracious losers.
Whingeing Poms to a man!!!!!!!!!
The centre of the English is centerdness, and knowing the strength of that, let others rant their hurts as the English don't know of those hurts not having experienced them. But to deny the English have the ability to be empathetic, is a hatred bred of those looking to externalise the painful realities of their communities, often from circumstances beyond their control. I always thought Mittel Europeans understood life better having experienced more aspects of it than the English, but the Mittel Europeans never had that confidence to just stand firm in rails of abuse. That is why in England there was a Police, in Europe there was a State Militia.
So know who you are, in your arrogant certainty in the face of adversity, but when it quiets down show that pragmatism that is so valued round the world.

[Michael]

Excellent video.

Powerful and precise..we need to make everyone aware of what this unelected farce of a PM is doing to this generation and future generations.

I also liked the other video. Great music and I liked the graphics..it reminded me of a video called 'Shift happens'.

[TomTom]

Better to show hunched adults bearing a great debt burden - even carrying Gordon Brown as Jabba The Hut on their backs - the crushing burden of debt making it impossible to move forward

[rugfish]

Clear blue water is now visible.
The video is very emotive and hits the mark precisely.

Really well done !

[Pulvertaft]

Posted by: snegchui | January 13, 2009 at 00:40

And there we have it. Irony, for some, is a form of metalwork. Yes, we are arrogant but that stems from winning life's lottery.

[rugfish]

Well well well. We have respectable media, ( and the BBC ), chucking out flurries of reports of businesses sliding down the tube into bankruptcy, mergers, lost jobs, a wreckers yard for the motor industry, massive debts for government, predictions of further gloom and bust of repossessions, unaffordable civic pensions, a Chancellor up to his eyes in problems, and every business leader and economist threatening piles of inactivity in our future economy which should, if they're right, leave Britain like a ghost town, and then we have what people think.

Could it be that people have already taken the bunker approach perhaps?
Have they "seen the light" and decided not to use it?
Is it just the great British public has taken a more ambivalent approach in saying they caused it so let them sort it out? Or is it that they are acutely aware of the power they have as consumers, are sick of politics in general and want a change but can't be arsed to have a revolution?

It would be interesting to find out what they really think.

Apparently, according to the very latest poll conducted by The Times, people aren't that bothered.

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/comment/columnists/peter_riddell/article5505374.ece

[David Sergeant]

I think you are right Tim. Cameron and the Conservatives are being far too reasonable. They should obviously be as mad as hell as Brown takes their country down the tubes after all that trouble sorting the last Labour mess. Janet Daley yesterday got nearly hysterical about Brown's apparant strategy of making the Conservatives irrelevent and therefore ceasing to be a major force. The point that now has surely to be made is that Labour having wrecked the country again can no longer be afforded as a serious political party which just might become a government again. We really need to be seen to be piling in on Labour. Note, " need to be seen", unless we are seen to be angry most people will just think it's just another bunch of politicians having a go.