Is it possible that Labour lost the Bradford West by-election because of a poor PR stunt?
A good picture can win an election, but equally a bad picture can lose one.
When I saw the BBC film of Ed Miliband and Ed Balls and Rachel Reeves queueing up in Greggs to buy some working-class stodge for their lunch I knew immediately it looked a fake.
Let's just remind ourselves: Ed Miliband is "Labour aristocracy" and an Oxbridge graduate; Ed Balls went to a public school and is an Oxbridge graduate; Rachel Reeves is an Oxbridge graduate. None of them has ever done a real day's work or worried about how they will pay the electricity bill. This is not to decry their achievement in going to Oxford or their commitment to making the world a better place, but they cannot queue up at Greggs among the lumpen proletariat and expect people to take the image at face value.
Is it possible that the voters of Bradford West saw the "pasty-gate" stunts of recent days and decided that whatever the problems the country faces the answer is not a faux class war led by the Labour party - especially when there was a real class warrior option in the form of George Galloway.
The Greggs photoshoot in my opinion undermined the Labour message by showing the Labour leaders to be trivial and opportunistic.
The best PR is communication founded on logical and compelling arguments that your target audience will find relevant and attractive. “Knocking copy” seldom works (you might get away with knocking copy once, but you can’t keep on getting away with it). The advice to Labour must be to work on their policies and let the PR plan flow from strategic messages they want to communicate.
Above: screenprint of an image that appeared on the Daily Mirror website. It looks staged and unconvincing. Does Rachel Reeves with her Oxbridge degree really read the Daily Mirror? She is not looking at the newspaper but staring fixedly at the camera. Why has the photographer chosen such a low angle, which makes the trio loom over the viewer in a way that is unsettling? Ed Balls is holding the carrier bag in a very odd way, as if he is unused to the experience of shopping.
A good picture can win an election, but equally a bad picture can lose one.
When I saw the BBC film of Ed Miliband and Ed Balls and Rachel Reeves queueing up in Greggs to buy some working-class stodge for their lunch I knew immediately it looked a fake.
Let's just remind ourselves: Ed Miliband is "Labour aristocracy" and an Oxbridge graduate; Ed Balls went to a public school and is an Oxbridge graduate; Rachel Reeves is an Oxbridge graduate. None of them has ever done a real day's work or worried about how they will pay the electricity bill. This is not to decry their achievement in going to Oxford or their commitment to making the world a better place, but they cannot queue up at Greggs among the lumpen proletariat and expect people to take the image at face value.
Is it possible that the voters of Bradford West saw the "pasty-gate" stunts of recent days and decided that whatever the problems the country faces the answer is not a faux class war led by the Labour party - especially when there was a real class warrior option in the form of George Galloway.
The Greggs photoshoot in my opinion undermined the Labour message by showing the Labour leaders to be trivial and opportunistic.
The best PR is communication founded on logical and compelling arguments that your target audience will find relevant and attractive. “Knocking copy” seldom works (you might get away with knocking copy once, but you can’t keep on getting away with it). The advice to Labour must be to work on their policies and let the PR plan flow from strategic messages they want to communicate.
Above: screenprint of an image that appeared on the Daily Mirror website. It looks staged and unconvincing. Does Rachel Reeves with her Oxbridge degree really read the Daily Mirror? She is not looking at the newspaper but staring fixedly at the camera. Why has the photographer chosen such a low angle, which makes the trio loom over the viewer in a way that is unsettling? Ed Balls is holding the carrier bag in a very odd way, as if he is unused to the experience of shopping.
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