The Conservatives’ advertising in t

The Conservatives’ advertising in the run-up to, and during, the 1997
campaign was less successful. As was noted in Chapter 3 above, the effects
of political advertising are determined not by content alone, but also by the
environmental context within which a political message is sent and received.
Between 1992 and 1997, much had changed in British politics. The Labour
Party had renewed itself under the leadership of Tony Blair, while the Tories
had been damaged by media-fuelled perceptions (reasonably accurate) of
moral and financial sleaze on the one hand, and internal division over policy
on European union on the other. As a result, when they attempted to reprise
the ‘Labour’s tax bombshell’ theme which had played so well in 1992