OPINION
Does the Labour Party 2023 Campaign Slogan Work?
Well – umm…Quick answer: actually no. It doesn’t work. if you haven’t caught up with it yet – wait till you see it and ask, “What does it mean?”
“In it for you”
It’s not even original. Mark Easterbrook was the copywriter of the original, award-winning slogan “in it for you” for Genesis Energy ten years ago.
I sure hope the Labour Party ad agency didn’t get paid for coming up with a ‘new’ decades-old phrase; A back-to-the-future slogan.
Hipkins is tight-lipped about or (pretending to be) ignorant of the cost of the ‘creative’ slogan, let alone the fact that it is a retread. Shouldn’t the Prime Minister and leader of the Labour Government know? You would think so, but “Chris Hipkins doesn’t know how much his Labour Party’s new slogan cost after announcing the catchphrase at the weekend”.
While it was an award-winning phrase for its original purpose with Genesis Energy, as an election campaign slogan for the Labour Party, it is wide open to ridicule and re-wording and will be memorable for all the wrong reasons. The feedback is coming in thick and fast on MSM and social media.
Variations include – but are certainly not limited to
- What’s in it for me?
- Not in it for you, just for me.
- In it for me.
- In it for you who expect to be rewarded for doing nothing.
- In it for who?
- In it for the perks and power, not results.
- Deeper in the s*** for you.
- Nothing in it for you unless you are on a benefit or gang member or a ram-raider or youth criminal.
A campaign slogan has to be meaningful and differentiate the party from its opponents. Do the Labour Party’s four words do that? Does it tell us why the party is the best choice?
No it does not.
As the two major parties go head-to-head with voters, is the Labour Party meaningful? Does the slogan differentiate it from National? Is Labour in it for me? Is it “in it” for my friends and family? Is it “in it” for those I meet and have a political discussion with?
No, it is not and does not.
What does the slogan even mean? What is ‘it’?
Politics is a comparative playing field.
While National’s “Get our country back on track” appears similarly lack-lustre and causes us to pose questions like: Which track? To where? Car racing track? Horse racing? Railway track? Both slogans miss the boat: Wokey in the case of Labour and wonky in the case of National.
Neither does its party proud and instinctive reactions have tended towards ridicule: Feel-good words with no real emotional connection.
If this is the best the major parties can come up with, they deserve whatever the electorate chooses to deal to them for their lack of vision.
Kate Hawkesby though thinks that the Nats’ slogan works.
“It’s clear what it means; it speaks to the 65 plus percent of us who on current polling say the country’s going in the wrong direction. It’s clear, and it’s a promise they’re making, which we will be holding them to as a country because we know how badly we all want the country back on track.”
Kate Hawkesby: Slogans tell us about a party’s focus (newstalkzb.co.nz)
She says they are making a promise.
Really? Where? Her enthusiastic response doesn’t do it for me. The message is by no means clear.
However, a slogan does allow for personal interpretation. ACT’s David Seymour:
“It makes me a little bit nervous that Labour is ‘in it for us’ because if you look at just about everything they’ve tried to do, it’s been damaging. The issue isn’t who are they in it for, it’s, ‘Are they competent to deliver for anyone?’”
Chloe Swarbrick said:
“When I see that slogan there from the Labour Party about ‘in it for you’, again, let’s dig a little bit deeper. In the context of this past week, the advice that was released from the Budget document dump we saw that Labour considered but decided not to move ahead with a wealth tax or capital gains tax or otherwise. So when I hear those words ‘in it for you’, who is ‘you?’”
Election 2023: ACT Party leader David Seymour says Labour’s campaign slogan makes him ‘nervous’ | Newshub
National Party MP Chris Penk said, “In it for you” was a “pretty bold slogan choice for a party wracked by conflict-of-interest schemozzles.”
Election 2023: Reactions flood in over Labour’s new campaign slogan | Newshub
A slogan is a tiny sliver of the overall campaign message. It needs to be clear and should elicit a positive response. The responses have been anything but positive and neither of them is in the least bit catchy or engaging.
“Make America great Again.”
250 Famous Political Slogans & Famous Political Party Slogans (sloganshub.org)
Love it or loathe it, how well did that work?
Neither Labour’s nor National’s slogan does anything to inspire or establish a positive emotional connection with voters or reinforce the party brand.
They are both bland, boring, and banal. And, worse still, Labour’s is unoriginal.