Saturday 11 April 2009

Failed Federal Election Slogans 1951-2007

Election slogans tend to be left motherless at the best of times - even winning campaigns are generally sick to death of them by the end. And naturally, losing slogans are well and truly consigned to to the dustbins of history. So, I did of bit of scratching around, and found them in a journal article, cited below. A few initial comments and curios:
  • Check out 1969! It practically sounds like an invitation to an orgy - possibly at Don's Party.
  • The second slogan from 1998 ('Australia deserves better') was a recycle of the winning slogan from the winning 1993 campaign.
  • Curiously, Menzies won in 1949 with "It's time for a change" - which demonstrates that the most famous electoral slogan of all was not exactly an original.
I can't decide which is the lamest. I think it might be the utterly colourless "Go for Growth" - though hot contenders would also include the bizarre brain-fart that was "Incentivation", the ever-irritating "Ease the squeeze", and perhaps the rather pointless and weird "We're not waiting for the world" (huh?). Anyway, here they are, in all their glory!

Year - Losing Party - Slogan/s
1951 ALP - What Labor promises, Labor will do

1961 ALP - Labor puts people first

1963 ALP - Time for Action

1966 ALP - Vote ALP and End Conscription / What Price Freedom

1969 ALP - Labor: Where the action is / Join the swing to Labor

1972 LNP - Right today and Right for your future/ Not Yet

1974 LNP - Think again

1975 ALP - Shame Fraser Shame/ Advance Australia Fair

1977 ALP - Get Australia Working / Uranium: Play it safe

1980 ALP - Raise the Standard

1983 LNP - We're Not Waiting For The World

1984 LNP - Stand up for your family. Vote Liberal

1987 LNP - Get in front again/ Incentivation (and also 'Joh for PM')

1990 LNP - The answer is liberal

1993 LNP - We can do it…together / Labor’s got to go/ Fightback

1996 ALP - Leadership

1998 ALP - A Safe and Secure future for all Australians / Australia deserves better

2001 ALP - A Secure future for all Australians / That’s what I stand for

2004 ALP - Opportunity for All Australians/ Mark Latham and Labor: Taking the pressure off families/ Ease the squeeze

2007 LNP - Go for Growth

Source: Sally Young (2006), Australian Election Slogans, 1949-2004: Where Political Marketing Meets Political Rhetoric, Australian Journal of Communication, 33(1):pp 1-20

19 comments:

Kerryn Goldsworthy said...

I always liked 'Shame Fraser Shame'. I seem to remember shouting it quite a lot at the time.

WV: resil. Not bloody likely.

Anonymous said...

Joh for PM!

terangeree said...

I thought the 1990 slogan was "The answer is . . . "

Blessed if I can remember what the question was, though.

Lefty E said...

Pav- that's the first one I remember. My Dad had a lot of badges.

Anon - yes! That should be added to '87.

Terangeree - remember Keating's quip (or was it Hawke)? "If the answer is Liberal, it must have been a bloody stupid question"

TimT said...

There's some great election slogans stories in Fred Daly's political autobiography, 'From Curtin to Kerr' (later edition, 'From Curtin to Hawke'.

In his early years he was holding a Sydney seat and contesting it in an election against a Liberal candidate. The Liberal ran with:

'Be safe, be clean, be fresh - change Daly. '

Fred countered with:

'Give us this day our Daly bread.'

He also tells a story about a country seat which was held by a National (then Country Party) member, Jack Easter. A Liberal member decided to run for the seat as well, and it resulted in a by-election. Just for fun the Labor Party decided to run a candidate there, too. According to Daly, during the campaign the Liberal and the Country candidates would stand up and say why they were better than one another, following which the Labor guy would stand up and say they were both liars.

Labor won the seat, and ever afterwards other pollies would say to Jack Easter:

"Hey Jack. When was it Easter fell on a Sunday?"

Lefty E said...

Heh, TimT - I like old war stories from the hustings.

Sam the Dog said...

You were right about the Don's Party feel. Reading those slogans I felt like I was being propositioned, but given that it was 19_69_, who could be surprised?

Go for Growth was just weird. Dumb. Never liked it.

thewetmale said...

Great post. Having been born in '85, after reading this, more than ever before, i wish i was around for the '69 election:-)

The 'not yet' line from the LNP in '72 looks pretty weak compared to the simplicity of 'it's time.'

I also find it interesting that in 2001 Labor clearly were looking to re-do the '98 election.
Circumstances partially got in the way of that one.

I can't help but think that Rudd has had his eye on 'What Labor promises, Labor will do' for a while now.

Finally, 'go for growth.' With the benefit of seeing what has happened in the last year or so, i think that this video is more relevant than ever.

Lefty E said...

Indeed Sam - it was the annee erotique after all.

And Wet - I remember that video well from late 07. What a hoot!

Fyodor said...

Excellent sourcery.

Lefty E said...

Yes, I have my sources.

Loose association time: I'll never forget one of those ridiculous "Carry on" style UK comedies I saw on telly when I was a kid - some period drama in which a be-wigged English character says to a French one "Don't get saucy with me, Bernaise!"

The Count de Money said...

Wash your fecking mouth out - you're talking about the movie I love:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hyw_o6P6-WQ&feature=related

Lefty E said...

LOL! That's right, it was Mel Brooks' History of the World. Reminds me of the joys of Blazing Saddles, especially http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TJkHykGRXrw&feature=related

Fyodor said...

Ah, yes: Blazing Saddles, easily the best counter to blaxploitation, and racism in general, written by some Menschen who knew. Ou sont les nègres d'Antan?

Speaking of absurdist association, it's a very limited genre, the Jewish Western. Surpassed in its uniquity only by the Gay Jewish Western. Yah, weh before Brokeback Mountain there was...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QCcofGO3ymo&feature=related

Lefty E said...

Oi vey! - what is that taken from? On a serious-ish note tho, I'm well sick of Hollywood and its retrospective foreign and racial relations exercises. Jesus, you'd almost think the the US didnt turn back loads of Jewish refugees on boats in the late 30s.

Anyway - whats this thread about? Oh yeah... so, like, we're not waiting for the world! or something...

I can dig it said...

Damn right.

The Frisco Kid. Gay subtext (NTTAWWT) aside, a truly great and terribly under-appreciated fillum.

WV = "corkeys"

No, I am not shitting you. "Corkeys". Yairs, I bet you're thinking what I'm thinking, B1.

P.S. I don't want to bag Blaxploitation too much. After all, it did give us this:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MPTyLnVcsL4

Lefty E said...

Shaft is quality merchandise. Surely nobody contests facts such as these! Even in the stoushosphere some truths are self-evident.

Moreover, its where the action is, so join the swing, erm... to it.

Ill be communicating solely in failed federal electoral slogans for some time - so, you know,
think again.

Kerryn Goldsworthy said...

'Ou sont les nègres d'Antan?'

11/10

Lefty E said...

Well, its official: this just became the most successful post ever at BmL - at 18 comments. Now 19 I guess!