Do you really want the Tories out? I mean, really? Really, really? Really, really, really, definitely? If you are completely sure, then a cohesive marketing strategy with clear points for anyone to follow would make a difference. Elections are won through advertising, media presence and focusing on what you want. This is the same with business development and any sales strategy. Sales people don’t discuss their competition for a reason. Of course: All publicity is good publicity.
Don’t mention the Tories. Zilch. Black out. Like a news black out during a war, it works on the majority of people. Like an advertising campaign on prime time TV, it works. I propose a Tory Black Out and focus on the party you want to win. If you need to discuss Tory policy – we all know it’s terrible – then please do it away from media, online or anywhere it demands attention. Let us FOCUS on what we want. Honestly, that will work on the majority too.
This blog looks back over examples of election landslide victories to show that media presence is the thread that runs through all of them.
If you want a change of government, look at how corporations spend billions of dollars ensuring their messaging is cohesive, bulletproof and focuses on what they want, ignoring anything inconvenient. If this works for organisations, who are visibly damaging the environment, health, the economy and society in their own interests, it will work for everything that we want.
This is utterly urgent. There is no room to do your own thing. No time for flippancy or knee-jerk actions. With rising energy prices and petrol, cost of living and emptying food shelves, with the predictably devastating effects of Brexit. The Brexit Party winning the EU Referendum is the first example of media presence and advertising swaying public opinion against our best interests. This vote took us back in time and further from our neighbours, removed protections, business associates and technological advances and adding barriers, time requirement and costs to all transactions.
Let’s be a team. Brainstorming, collaborating, communication and creating with others is a truly envigorating experience. This is the basis along which successful political parties are formed. This is the grass roots basis on which Barack Obama based his presidential campaign. Everyone working together, checking in, communicating and sharing ideas and planning actions. If one person does something it just tickles the ocean. If a crowd of people do it, more people will notice. WIth our natural desire to be part of something, more people will join in.
Now I will suggest the media strategy for the urgent change to government we need and afterwards, will provide some evidence of how these ideas have been used successfully in the past. I’ll also share links to articles discussing this directly, such as one by the London School of Economics.
Strategy
Most importantly, please find and share as many stories with photos about candidates and the party you want to win. Make this your main focus.
Your preferred party may have local councillors who have made a difference in your community. Your parliamentary candidate may have attended a meeting to secure a better outcome. By finding and following their social media profiles, you are likely to have a steady source of news and images.
Next: Never mention the opposition. No photos. No name checks. No reports of speech or actions. Black out. Do not discuss them publicly online. This is free advertising for them. All publicity is good publicity. ALL PUBLICITY. There is endless evidence for this: Winston Churchill in 1951. Margaret Thatcher in 1983. Tony Blair in 1997. Boris Johnson in 2019. Then look at food manufacturers. They influence official diet advice, fund health research, smear vitamin supplements in the press, have front groups, deploy gangs of trolls on social media and pay for prime time TV advertising and sponsorship. They are also behind Fact Finding and online censorship. Disappearing articles?
Try finding a story following an IPSOS poll showing the British people being 90% positive about immigrants published in a quality weekly in 2019, just before the London Bridge Attack. You will not find it. There was even a piece showing that the more popular immigrants were, the less splashes appeared in the red tops, whose main objective is to sell papers not influence opinion. Impossible to find today.
Where once there was news, now there is silence. That is how things are made to go away. Let us do that with the Tories. Notice documentaries printing “XYZ refused to comment” when they approached their subjects for an interview. The subjects of exposes NEVER EVER give interviews. This is no communication. Black out. Silence. Darkness. Recognise this. It is a blanket response. No airtime. Choked to death. Ignored.
Think of the word “ignored”. In taking no notice of something you will remain ignorant about it. Therefore, if something is ignored, people won’t know about it. Why do unhealthy products keep spending billions on advertising, while good things sell themselves?
Think of the Conservatives’ Devil Eyes campaign against Tony Blair in 2005, which helped him win the election as he was the centre of attention.
As my wifi took publishing this article backwards by 20 minutes, I’ll end now with an article from University of Oregon’s Journalism department on how media influences elections, with a quote.
“As hard as it is to believe, the biggest thing that drives elections is simple name recognition,” said Regina Lawrence, executive director of the UO SOJC’s Agora Journalism Center and George S. Turnbull Portland Center. “Research has shown that some candidates can be literally left invisible because they can’t win enough interest from the media.”
Regina Lawrence, executive director of the SOJC’s Agora Journalism Center and author of “Hillary Clinton’s Race for the White House: Gender Politics and the Media on the Campaign Trail,” – University of Oregon Journalism Department
Dairy of A Nonny Moose 