Separating fact from the fancifiul
Reform Politics
If you’re advertising chocolate, alcohol or cosmetics, you’ll need to comply with two ASA codes, three laws and an array of trade association rules. But if you’re advertising for a political party, you’re currently free to make wild and unsubstantiated claims. This is because, shockingly, campaign material in the UK is still not regulated. At all.
Voters have nowhere to complain if they believe a political ad is dishonest. And with no regulator or body responsible, nobody has the power to remove political advertising that is misleading or indecent.
Without knowing what or who we can trust, faith in our democracy is being damaged.
Fact. Or fairytale.
A non-partisan group, The Coalition For Reform In Political Advertising formed to tackle this growing problem. Their ultimate aim was to call on parliament to implement a four-point plan to improve the transparency around political ads.
But for things to change, political parties needed to agree on it. And the only way that was going to happen was by showing them that the public demanded it.
They needed coverage. So I created their first consumer campaign.
To dramatise the fact it’s currently impossible to know what’s real and what’s just make believe, each ad juxtaposed political campaign messaging with fairytale language. Using the most divisive politicians of the time ensured it would reach as wide an audience as possible.
Results
Using key political figures helped us generate publicity and ensure the message reached as wide an audience as possible.
Following the campaign, The Green Party came out in support and signed the Pledge.
We also quickly received support from industry leaders including the ISBA director general Phil Smithe, who said: "ISBA supports the Coalition for Reform in Political Advertising’s four-point plan and agrees there is urgency for there to be agreement in how political advertising should be more closely regulated ahead of any potential upcoming electoral processes,”