Labour's 'anti-semitic' advertising campaign tops Ads that Make News poll

by Jennifer Whitehead Brand Republic 07-Mar-05, 08:40

LONDON - Labour's controversial proposed poster campaign depicting Tory Leader Michael Howard as a Fagin-like character and a flying pig was the most written about advertising during February.

The posters were never used, but were instead part of an online poll of Labour supporters to gauge response for possible use in the party's general election advertising campaign.

One poster was criticised for allegedly depicting Howard as the Fagin character in Dickens' 'Oliver Twist', while the other depicted Howard and shadow chancellor Oliver Letwin, both of whom are Jewish, as flying pigs.

Just as the story looked like it might die down, it emerged that Alastair Campbell, the Labour Party election campaigner, was behind the ads. Originally, the posters were attributed to ad agency TBWA\London. Stories about the ads generated were estimated to have generated £300,000 in free publicity for Labour.

The Ads that Make News survey, produced by Propeller Communications and Durrants Media Monitoring in association with Brand Republic, measures the volume of stories about individual ad campaigns in national newspapers.

It found that, once again, Pepsi-Cola's use of A-list celebrities in its global advertising continued to help it make headlines. BBDO New York's latest star-studded commercial featuring David Beckham, Beyonce Knowles and Jennifer Lopez fighting gangsters in Hong Kong was at number two in February's Ads that Make News survey.

At number three was a recruitment ad for the London Fire Brigade, which was forced to withdraw it after complaints from female firefighters. The ad, by agency Work Comms and targeting the lesbian community, used the headline: "Fancy pulling an older woman?" In smaller print it continued: "Out of a car, from a burning building or just out of danger?"

Other advertising to make the survey for controversy was Five's direct mail campaign for the US spin-off TV series 'CSI: New York', after the Advertising Standards Authority received 30 complaints. The campaign, created by 20:20 London, showed a murder scene with the victim bearing the name of the person targeted by the mail shot.

In the number four spot was Britney Spears appearing in advertising for the Elizabeth Arden fragrance Curious, in a list that was unusually light on celebrity.

Howard Brown, the Halifax bank worker turned singing star, was at number five in the survey, after the decision by Halifax's decision to pay Madame Tussauds £100,000 to have bespectacled Howard immortalised in wax.

Other ads in the top 10 included TBWA\London's spot for Pedigree Chum, which featured mongrel dogs for the first time in 45 years; Coca-Cola's strategy of targeting men with Diet Coke at number eight; and American Express shooting a commercial starring the Chelsea football manager Jose Mourinho.

And, in what could be the only time Michael Howard makes it to number 10, the controversial advertising promoting the Conservative Party's immigration policy rounded out the Ads that Make News chart.

Martin Loat, director of Propeller Communications, said: "It was the relatively low spending but politically charged advertisers, such as the two main parties and the London Fire Brigade, which blazed the controversy trail."

He added: "But high-spending big league advertisers such as Pepsi, Elizabeth Arden and Amex showed once again that a huge budget and a famous face is virtually guaranteed to make an ad make news in the these celebrity-obsessed times."

The Top 10 Ads That Make News for February 2005 measures the total numbers of stories about specific ad campaigns in the UK national press.

1 Labour -- row over Campbell's anti-Tory ads
2 Pepsi -- Beckham, Lopez and Beyonce
3 Fire Brigade -- advertising to lesbian recruits
4 Elizabeth Arden -- Britney's new perfume ad
5 Halifax -- waxwork created for Madame Tussauds
6 Pedigree -- mongrels in ads
7 American Express -- Jose Mourinho paid £750,000
8 Coca-Cola -- Diet Coke targets men
9 Five -- CSI "murder scene" direct mail banned by ASA
10 Conservatives -- immigration ads and ads aimed at pensioners