Labour Party keeps it simple
Perhaps Labour is putting the KISS mantra into place with its viral ads in the 2010 General Election; perhaps they think that everyday TV faces recognised by millions will win over floating voters, or at least get the core vote out.
Or perhaps they're totally skint. Either way, these ads from Labour featuring Ross Kemp (dig at the missus?), Sean Pertwee and Eddie Izzard are startling in their simplicity - and appear to feature the celebrities speaking for themselves on voting in the election.
The Road Ahead has a bit more to it, with Pertwee hiking across the British countryside, but the Izzard and Kemp spots have a plain background, little in the way of graphics or soundtrack and two men putting over a very simple message.
I think they're good, in that they're communicating a simple message clearly, though whether that's come about as a result of Labour being strapped is unclear.
I often wonder why government agencies don't ape this simple approach when attempting to communicate the likes of tax credits, digital switchovers and getting on the electoral role.
The ads generally trotted out are so convoluted as to be indistinguishable from the diaspora of modern advertising - does anyone really remember that daft digital one with the little robot and ugly man? - but what do I know?
Doing simple things well is rarely fashionable, and who's going to pay for all of those second homes for ad execs if every ad features Michael Parkinson talking his sodding pension?
But I'd stake my collection of digital PR newsletters that it would work. Keep It Simple, Stupid is a mantra we'd do well to observe in most walks of life.
60 seconds - Ross Kemp
Brilliant Britain - Eddie Izzard
The Road Ahead - Sean Pertwee
Change - Bill Bailey
They'll be voting Labour
Bill Bailey, Jo Brand, Liz Dawn, Leonard Fenton, Prunella Scales, Tony Robinson, Peter Guinness and Roberta Taylor explain why they'll be voting Labour on Thursday.
‘Step outside posh boy’ and other political spoofs
There's been a lot of political advert spoofery around recently, what with MyDavidCameron and some other efforts from the Right that were either nasty or just plain shit.
The Grauniad and Saatchi & Saatchi have got in on the act today with a series of very unfunny spoof election posters implying that Gordon Brown is to be presented as a kind of hard nut in the election campaign.
Political spoofs have to be either pointed or funny, in my opinion - preferably both. These spoofs are neither.
I happen to think that a lot of the MyDavidCameron ads were pretty funny. There were a lot of weak ones, and there were some that went for the jugular, rather than aiming for laughs, but a few of them really amused me – which is why they were so popular.
It's interesting, then, to see a professional advertising agency fail to be funny or pointed, where everyday geeks, web types and the listless Mac-wielding millions managed OK.
'Vote Labour - or else' is the extraordinarily tired slogan on these posters, one of which actually has Brown dressed as The Terminator, along with the nonsensical slogan 'Because I'll never go away'. They're fucking rubbish.
Really, I suppose it's uncharitable to knock April Fool's Day spoofs - at least they're trying to show the human side of politics and journalism eh?
Then again, when adverts are this shit, why pull punches?
Carly Fiorina sheep attack advert
OK, first up Carly Fiorina is the former CEO of Hewlett-Packard currently in the middle of a Senate run in California.
Fiorina is gunning for the Republican nomination, after former employer HP booted her out in 2005 (to give you an idea of what they thought of her, HP has has since contributed to her opponent's campaign fund).
So, you might think this ad is aimed at veteran Democrat Barbara Boxer. Nope, that's not how US politics works.
To first secure the Republican nomination Fiorina has to smear overcome other Republicans also seeking the nomination.
So, this ad is aimed at fellow Republican Tom Campbell. Fiorina hasn't even got to Boxer yet.
It's so hard to know where to start with this ad. UK readers may be shocked by how vicious the ad is, especially considering its aimed at someone from the same political party.
But low blows and negative campaigning are par for the course in US politics, especially from the right-wing, following Karl Rove's foray into political campaigning.
What is more obvious is that this is completely swivel-eyed, wing-nut, bible-bashing, lib'rul-hatin' batshit crazy, particularly odd in the relatively-liberal California.
I mean, there's a guy dressed up as a wolf in sheep's clothing running around a hillside with glowing red eyes.
There's a sheep standing on a doric column that starts ascending into the stratosphere as if animated by Terry Gilliam on an off day.
There's a bizarre attempt at an acronym that doesn't even work - FCINO. And what do 'Piety' and Purity' have to do with anything?
It's a confused message, but is the message even important? To American's perpetually scared, perpetually angry, perpetually suspicious right-wing populus it may successfully brand Campbell as evil, demonic or, even worse, a Fiscal Conservative In Name Only.
It's a strategy that bombed with the UK's rather less terrified population with the Tories' Demon Eyes billboard poster in '97, but the publicity it has garnered speaks for itself.
It's often said that if you tell a lie big enough and keep repeating it, people will eventually come to believe it - and that's a mantra the US right has run with, which is why plenty of people believed Obama was a communist, a Muslim, a homosexual or not even a US national during the 2008 campaign.
This ad takes that theory and turns it all up to 11. It's all hyperbole, innuendo and flat-out smear. Already media outlets are declaring that this advert is so bonkers that it will finish off Fiorina's campaign.
I hope they don't underestimate just how susceptible US voters are to this kind of drivel. The fact that the seat in question is California offers some hope, but try telling Michael Dukakis that negative campaigning doesn't work.