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The Guardian - UK
The Guardian - UK
Politics
Michael Savage Policy Editor

Art of the attack ad: six memorable angles the Conservatives have tried

Conservative poster featuring Labour party leader Ed Miliband in the pocket of former SNP leader Alex Salmond
Conservative poster featuring Labour party leader Ed Miliband in the pocket of former SNP leader Alex Salmond, used ahead of the 2015 election. Photograph: Conservative Party/PA

From the devastating to the downright desperate, the Conservatives have a rich – if chequered – history of devising political attack advertisements designed to see off Labour.

At their best, they have the power to tap into the nation’s doubts about the party, most obviously preying on suspicions that it will tax and spend the moment it seizes the levers of power. They have also attempted to take aim at the perceived flaws of the Labour leader – whether it was concerns over Jeremy Corbyn’s views on national security or Ed Miliband’s willingness to stand up to the SNP should he become prime minister.

With Labour still retaining a stubbornly large poll lead in an election year, the Tories are now engaged in an increasingly desperate race to find an attack on Keir Starmer and his party that might stick. While Boris Johnson’s depiction of Starmer as “Captain Hindsight” during the peak of the Covid crisis gained some traction, the Tories have since veered from depicting Starmer as ruthless and unprincipled to being a lefty lawyer committed to human rights.

Here, we document the party’s most and least successful attempts to land one on their opponents.

Ad of a white family of a girl, boy in a tie, a smiling mother and a father at the breakfast table entitled “Life’s better with the Conservatives. Don’t let Labour ruin it. Vote Conservative”
The Tory attack ad for the 1959 general election referenced a Harold Macmillan speech. Photograph: Conservative Party Archive/Getty Images

Life’s better with the Conservatives. Don’t let Labour ruin it, 1959

Building on prime minister Harold Macmillan’s 1957 declaration that the UK had “never had it so good”, the Tories carried the message into their election campaign. The country agreed and gave the party a historic third general election victory in a row, increasing its majority from 60 to 100 seats.

A man in front of a billboard reading “The odd couple”, and in the foreground two men in short sleeves and trousers walking past the Tory ad entitled “Labour Isn’t Working”, which shows a dole queue
The successful Saatchi & Saatchi ad showing a dole queue helped propel Margaret Thatcher to victory in 1979. Photograph: Keystone Pictures USA/Alamy

Labour isn’t working, 1979

Widely regarded as the epitome of the successful attack ad, Saatchi & Saatchi’s “Labour isn’t working” poster used in Margaret Thatcher’s victorious 1979 campaign managed to highlight the nation’s concerns in one image of a winding dole queue. The simple idea also spoke to Thatcher’s iconoclastic approach to taking a different path. Attack ads had well and truly arrived.

Ad from the 1992 general election saying: ‘Labour’s Tax Bombshell” with a caption superimposed on a bomb reading: “You’d pay £1,250 more tax a year under Labour”
Ad capitalising on fears over economic plans if Neil Kinnock became prime minister. Photograph: Conservative Party Archive/Getty Images

Labour’s tax bombshell, 1992

Another Saatchi ad that highlighted concerns felt by voters over the prospect of installing Neil Kinnock into No 10 in 1992. Kinnock had taken Labour back towards the centre after it had drifted to the left under Michael Foot -, yet suspicions remained over its economic plans. The defeat fuelled a future New Labour’s obsession with having credible spending plans.

Ad of a broadly grinning Tony Blair superimposed with slanted red eyes on a strip of black with the caption “New Labour, New Danger”
Ad of Tony Blair which the Tory party was ordered by the Advertising Standards Authority not to repeat because it showed Blair in a ‘dishonest and sinister way’. Photograph: PA Photos/PA

New Labour, New Danger, 1996

The image of Tony Blair with demon eyes has come to symbolise the attack ad gone wrong. It was published with the Tories desperate to dent a huge Labour lead and tried to paint New Labour as being old Labour in disguise. The problem was that voters disagreed – as shown by Labour’s 179-strong majority in 1997.

In the pocket of the SNP (main picture, above), 2015

With polls suggesting Labour could be the biggest party in a hung parliament after the 2015 election, a Tory party running out of ideas published an ad depicting Labour’s Ed Miliband as being in the pocket of the SNP’s Alex Salmond. The idea took off thanks to English voters’ perception of Miliband as weak.

Ad showing a grinning Keir Starmer in a jacket and tie with the caption “Are you a terrorist in need of legal advice? Better Call Keir”
Conservative attack ad approach 2024 style. Photograph: @Conservatives/Twitter/X

Better Call Keir, 2024

With Labour’s poll lead still in double digits, the Tories are attacking Keir Starmer for cases he took on as a criminal barrister – with a reference to the hit television show Better Call Saul. Social media users soon pointed out that, quite apart from the fact that Starmer had prosecuted terrorists, the poster made the Labour leader look almost cool.

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