Without any specific “launch” events, the main parties have decided what their slogans are going to be. The Labour Party has gone minimalist with its unusual one-word pitch: “Change.” By contrast, the Conservatives, apart from the various invocations of the (never to be seen or actually published) “plan” that they’re sticking to, have chosen an unusually wordy formulation for their social media videos and other materials: “Clear Plan, Bold Action, Secure Future.” The latest polling research commissioned by The Independent suggests, perhaps a little surprisingly, that the public rates it slightly better than Labour’s almost demanding slogan. But there is more to a winning campaign than a good catchphrase...
Do slogans matter?
Yes. They give professional politicians and activists something simple to remember and repeat incessantly until “the message” gets through. They give the media something to play with in reportage and headlines, and commentators something to write about on a slow day (evidently). They can help “connect” a party with the public, particularly if, as in more recent times, they are coined in focus groups by the public themselves. The highly successful and versatile phrases used by the Leave side in the 2016 EU referendum were the epitome of the technique of reflecting back to the public their own inchoate opinions: “Take Back Control.” Whoever spontaneously volunteered that in some hotel meeting room with a team of pollsters has never had a penny in royalties.
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