Saatchi: Now Working for Labour

Political loyalties can certainly shift, and leaders like Tony Blair in Britain and more recently Nicolas Sarkozy in France have had some strategic success in co-opting the opposition.

Given all that, however, it is still surprising to learn that the Labour Party of Britain has named Saatchi & Saatchi --the ad agency that was a symbol of the Thatcher era in Britain--to handle its advertising for its next campaign.

Saatchi & Saatchi became famous in 1979, when it helped Margaret Thatcher win election with the slogan "Labour isn't working."

And the agency itself embodied the monied flash and ambition of Tory Britain in the 1980's: aggressively pursuing acquisitions and handling accounts for companies newly privatized by the Conservatives. Maurice Saatchi, who founded the agency in 1976 with his brother Charles, was co-chairman of the Conservative party for a few years.

That history makes the agency's work for Labour seem different than if Coca-Cola's agency later handled Pepsi, for example.

For Labour, Saatchi & Saatchi's work may have to ramp up soon. The new prime minister, Gordon Brown, is expected to call a "snap" election, perhaps as early as this fall.

Here is a sample of Saatchi & Saatchi's work that won the account:

(For the record, Flash Gordon fought against Ming the Merciless, the despot of Mongo, while Brown would face off against the mild-mannered David Cameron, the leader of the opposition Conservatives.)

Labour's previous agency was TBWA/London, which lost 1 million pounds in working on the 2005 general election, according to the trade magazine Campaign. TBWA/London's 2005 ads, in fact, mocked the 1979 Saatchi & Saatchi slogan, declaring that "Britain is working."

To be sure, however, Saatchi & Saatchi is a different agency than it was in 1979. For one, it is now owned by Publicis Groupe of France. After the 1980's expansion drive led to problems, Maurice and Charles were ousted from the agency in 1995; they then founded a rival shop, M&C Saatchi.

Some things don't change. The Conservative Party is also looking for a new ad agency. M&C Saatchi, which previously had the account, is said to be trying to win it back.

Jeffrey Cane