It's presumably obvious, but I feel I should specify that I don't actually know what I'm talking about. I'm absorbed a large amount of information from pillow talk with Liv (we have the best pillow talk), and I hope it's fair if far from complete, but don't get into an argument where you say "well, Cartesiandaemon said Liv said Rabbi Hillel said the prophet Elijah said Moses said God said X, so it must be right!" I'll do my best to make sure what I say is somewhat true, but it will contain many examples where the emphasis is in the wrong place and it gives the wrong impression :)
Apr. 26th, 2010
Party Political Signs in Cambridge
Apr. 26th, 2010 12:33 pmI've recently observed the mix of party political signs on lawns and in windows in my daily journeys. And in a tongue-in-cheek way it looks as if the designers had followed a standard piece of marketing advice of tackling your weakest point head-on.
Obviously that's not always the case, but it's the reason why it makes sense some of the time for McDonalds to advertise themselves as gourmet: everyone is already convinced they're easy and cheap (whether it's true or not) so advertising that MORE won't necessarily convince any more people. But asserting that you're gourmet will persuade at least some people who otherwise would have been put off.
Thus, the party slogans:
* Liberal Democrats "winning here": counteracting the stereotype that they stand less chance of being nationally elected to a parliamentary majority
* Conservative "vote for change": counteracting the stereotype that they will be just more of the same as New Labour
* Green "Green party, Tony Juniper": Everyone knows what we stand for, we just want to convince you that we're widely supported and stand a serious chance of doing well in the election
* Labour: nothing. No signs. Presumably they want people to vote for them who have always traditionally seen them as the best choice, but think drawing attention will just remind people who have been pissed off what they were cross about... [1]
[1] Obviously this is not actually true, it's just that the houses I cycle past don't have labour posters (although there's a tendency for people to be less vocal in support for an unpopular/incumbent party even if they think they are actually good).
Obviously that's not always the case, but it's the reason why it makes sense some of the time for McDonalds to advertise themselves as gourmet: everyone is already convinced they're easy and cheap (whether it's true or not) so advertising that MORE won't necessarily convince any more people. But asserting that you're gourmet will persuade at least some people who otherwise would have been put off.
Thus, the party slogans:
* Liberal Democrats "winning here": counteracting the stereotype that they stand less chance of being nationally elected to a parliamentary majority
* Conservative "vote for change": counteracting the stereotype that they will be just more of the same as New Labour
* Green "Green party, Tony Juniper": Everyone knows what we stand for, we just want to convince you that we're widely supported and stand a serious chance of doing well in the election
* Labour: nothing. No signs. Presumably they want people to vote for them who have always traditionally seen them as the best choice, but think drawing attention will just remind people who have been pissed off what they were cross about... [1]
[1] Obviously this is not actually true, it's just that the houses I cycle past don't have labour posters (although there's a tendency for people to be less vocal in support for an unpopular/incumbent party even if they think they are actually good).