Election Ads: London Mayoralty
Posted: April 12, 2012 Filed under: Campaigning, International 2 Comments »One of the largest local body elections on the planet is just over a month away. It is to elect the Mayor of London and the Greater London Authority. It is worth noting that any commonwealth or EU citizen living in London is eligible to vote – so make sure you remind your friends doing their OE in old blighty (details here).
The two main players, Tory Mayor, Boris Johnson, and his Labour challenger (and predecessor), Ken Livingstone have been on the campaign trail literally for years already. But they formal campaign has just kicked off with the launch of their television ads. While I do have my obvious partisan bias, I do think that Ken’s ad really outshines Boris. Very interested to hear what you think.
Firstly, Ken’s ad…
And now Boris’…
Patrick Leyland
Guest Post
James Caygill
Both the ads were nice, I thought.
Not knowing much about the powers of the London Assembly, however, it almost seemed they were promising things that it wasn’t quite in their power to deliver, for instance Ken’s ad talking about electricity prices (I don’t know, maybe they do have some control in that area…)
I felt Boris had more substantive points about what he was going to do (and dollar figures are always nice), while the main focus of Ken’s ad was on the negative points, and the only area where he made a firm promise was on the transport costs. In terms of policy and promises, Boris wins.
Having the (very diverse) collection of everymen and everywomen gave a certain appeal to Ken’s advert, while Boris’ really tried to emphasise his own leadership. Both approaches had good effect, I thought. In terms of production quality, I think Ken’s won – Boris’ was all about himself.
I don’t know enough about London government, but I daresay continuity during the Olympics would be for the best, right?
Were I voting, I’d vote Boris – I don’t like the fact that Ken is trying to get a second round (or third, if you count his tenure as Leader of the London Council). There’s probably a partisan element for me there too (but I really don’t like politicians coming back for seconds).
Boris’ ad was very disappointing. He can be so charismatic and that did not come across at all. Ken’s on the other hand was very warm and authentic.