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The TV election
Philip Kleinman
How important are the party political broadcasts in determining the outcome of elections? The experience of last February, when according to .BBC figures the biggest TV audience for any of the party politicals amounted to less than 22 Per cent of potential viewers, would Indicate that the answer is not very. But that hasn't prevented the parties from devoting more and more thought and effort to the exercise.
The watershed year was 1970 when the Conservatives brought in a professional television advertising production company, James Garrett and partners, and a topnotch advertising agency creative director, Barry Day of McCann-Erickson, to help make their films. Even Labour Party publicity people, concede that the Tory broadcasts in the election that year, with their newsy format .and imaginative camera techniques, had a polish which was lacking from those of their opponents, who still relied on the old talking heads approach.
Since then the Labour Party has come on a bit, and its publicity chief, Percy Clark, is able to say with some confidence that this time round the Tories have lost their lead as far as broadcasting professionalism is concerned. The Labour broadcasts have been lively and viewable, with those opening quick-cut shots of party leaders on the job and that throbbing music reminiscent of Nationwide or This Week. Personally I particularly
liked the programme which interspersed close-up interviews with four Labour candidates, including the dishy Helene Middleweek, 10 different outdoor settings. What they said I can't for the life of me remember, but I don't su. opp se anyone else can either. • As in February Labour has used David Naden's film production company with help from the partY's regular publicity advisers, PR man Dennis Lyons and editorial entrepreneur Peter Davis (Lord LovellDavis to strangers). Expenditure on the party's TV broadcasts has been £20,000. The Tories this time have played it rather cooler than in February, when the Garrett-Day team produced that spiteful caricature 01 Harold Wilson throwing pound notes away. The same team is still at work, but it has been sticking to the party's national reconciliation line. This is probably politically wise, though there's nothing like a , spot of malice for making everyone sit up and take notice. Where the Tories have made a special effort is in attempting to keep right up with the news. For instance Labour accusations that Mrs Thatcher 's promises on mortgage rates were deceitful were immediately taken up in a party political. As usual the Conservatives refuse to disclose expenditure figures. The Liberals, however, are perfectly happy to admit that they have spent only £100 on their TV broadcasts. They have used onlY the production facilities made available by the BBC to all the parties, but that hasn't stopped them too from using a news-style introduction featuring a News-atTen-type shot of the Houses of Parliament and Huw Thomas in his old role of newscaster. Nevertheless they have had to restrict themselves rather more to talking heads than have the other two parties.
From a professional communicator's point of view, the main difficulty is perhaps one of casting. The professionals have no control over the choice of party spokesmen, otherwise they might well have plumped for Frankie Flowerd rather than Robert Carr or Harry H. Corbett rather than Jim Callaghan. Still Cyril Smith manages to give a passable imitation of Orson Welles on an off day.
Science
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