London, (Asian independent) In an era of social media and hashtags, three-word political messaging is the order of the day. Brevity not gravity is the mode of communication.
In Britain, Boris Johnson, now ousted as Prime Minister, achieved runaway success with a simple slogan of ‘GET BREXIT DONE’.
This helped him sweep the 2019 general elections. He judged the public frustration about the delay in implementing the 2016 referendum verdict of British voters to leave the European Union correctly. And he kept his promise simple.
The candidates vying to succeed him have replicated his concept. Most of them have a three-word campaign message.
All the six who remained in the field prior to Thursday’s second round of balloting have crisp and concise outreaches.
Rishi Sunak, who won the highest number of votes in Wednesday’s first round of balloting, signalled ‘readyforrishi’.
Penny Mordaunt, who came second, is all acronyms — ‘PM4PM’. Liz Truss, who came third, has ‘LIZ FOR LEADER’ as her pitch, while ‘Kemi for Prime Minister’ is Kemi Badenoch’s appeal.
Tom Tugendhat has coined ‘TOM A CLEAN START’, while Suella Braverman says ‘Suella4Leader’.
Clearly, none of conjuring possesses substance. But the marketing ploy is meant to be a magnet to generate interest and thereby draw people towards the details of what a contender stands for.
