Ashes to Ashes: The bells are tolling for Labour's campaign

Following The Guardian's cracking set of mock Labour campaign posters for April Fools Day, Labour appear to have gotten in on the act too.  However, the best bit (from a Conservative point of view) is that unlike the Guardian's creations, theirs will be hitting 850 advertising sites in the UK as of Monday.

If they weren't who they were, you'd almost be tempted to feel sorry for Labour.  Having to fight an election campaign on meagre funds whilst their main opponents enjoy the talent of the advertising gurus M&C Saatchi with their seemingly bottomless campaign funds.  Labour, on the other hand, have had to turn to their supporters for their next poster; running a competition for Labour supporters to design the next phase in their attempt to win a fourth term in power.

Last night, The Guardian revealed that this was the winner:

(Winning design by Jacob Quagliozzi, 24-year-old Labour supporter from St Albans)

My first reaction (along with that of many others) was one of total disbelief.  Surely this had to be a late (and very bad) April Fools joke.  However, in the cold light of day this is as real as it comes.  Could it be that the Labour media machine, which was so infallible from 1997 to 2005 is slowly coming off the rails?

Here's a selection of some of the best reactions from around the web:

"Amazing. Labour's latest poster (designed by a member of the public because they can't afford a proper ad agency campaign) depicts David Cameron as Gene Hunt... one of the most popular characters on TV. You'd have thought they might have picked someone the public don't actually like. Amateur night."

(Iain Dale)

"...the image actually makes Cameron look cool, young and fairly modern."

(Labour List)

"I'm increasingly certain someone high up in in Labour HQ put a big bet on the Tories winning the election and doesn't fancy losing."

(Comment on The Guardian website)

"Back to the 80's - high growth, low tax, lower regulation, a can do attitude, Great back in Britain, defeating militant trade unions, surely that template of success is one to follow - Labour seem to have forgotten that this receipe was so good they copied it initially."

(Comment on ConservativeHome)

Don't get me wrong, I've never claimed to know too much about marketing, but surely with a poster like that the idea is to encourage people to remember everything that was bad about the 1980s, and to paint your opponent in the worst light possible?  If I'm right there, then contrasting David Cameron with Gene Hunt is a rather big own goal.

Those who know about him generally like Gene Hunt, and see him as a cool, tough, no-nonsense guy who sorts things out old-school style.  By and large, those people would most likely also agree that this country needs a "Gene Hunt" in charge.  And as for the 1980s... well... unless the Labour lot have had their heads under a rock for the last few years, they should know that the 1980s are somewhat "in" at the moment, as the success of the BBC series Ashes to Ashes will show them.

Of course, those in the blogosphere have been their usual obliging and speedy selves in coming up with much better and harder hitting responses to Labour's efforts in the form of these two posters:

Now here, not only do the posters work at illustrating their point, we also have the scary preludes to a return to the 1970s ringing fresh in our ears: increasing numbers of strikes coupled with a government that is rapidly becoming hamstrung by the vice-like grip of the unions upon it.

Quite simply, those who remember the 1980s as something bad are generally Labour supporters in the first place (the miners et. al.) whereas the rest of us will just be reminded about the fact that the country was (by and large) in a much better state back then.

In fact, the people who have the most to fear from a return to the 1980s are the Labour Party themselves.  A return to a time when they were at their lowest ebb, on the verge of going out of business.  Out of power, out of ideas and dangerously close to slipping down to third place in the pecking order.

I think this poster may well prove to be a costly own goal for Labour - especially coming at a time when the Conservative lead in the polls is gradually widening - and I shall be most interested to see how they try and come back from this one.

As a certain 1980s DCI may well say:

Fire up the Quattro, we've got a country to fix!