Labour’s 16-seater bus, , will transport an all-female Labour team to more than 70 constituencies around the country to highlight Labour policies at school gates, workplaces shopping centres, universities, town centres and on doorsteps.
The colour choice of the vehicle, which Twitter users have dubbed 'Barbie pink', came under fire for stereotyping gender. Event industry professionals have highlighted its unoriginality and lack of subtlety. "This is not something we haven’t seen before," said Lauren Caisley, account manager at RPMC. "There has been a history of parties in the past using controversial tactics to attract attention."
Lex Butler, creative director of Wolf & White, agreed: "I feel the campaign is patronising and a little too desperate an idea. Targeting works in the right situation and for the right audience and ‘women’ is a too wide a net: women have different agendas and needs when it comes to politics, so why tarnish this with just targeting the pink gender?"
Ben Gallop, managing director of Brand & Deliver, said he was dumbfounded by pink bus-gate. "This is so misjudged and counter-productive, I'd assume it was a clever reverse-psychology stunt and would give it an award," he explained. "What can we expect next? Farage in a gimp suit performing at G-A-Y? Cameron joining a south-London grime band and spitting gangster lyrics?"
However, political parties should by no means ignore the power of experiential, as Neil Mortimer, production director at Cake Group, explained: "Experiential can do one thing well, it can put the politician front and centre in a face-to-face setting with their constituents. Just look at the American political campaign: it's theatre, it's entertainment. That’s experiential, it's evoking emotion."
He added: "In just the same way as influencing perception throughout the entire customer journey should be a carefully co-ordinated experiential marketing opportunity for consumer products, then the entire experience of seeing, hearing and maybe meeting a politician drives our perception of that politician. If you like, how we consume the politician and the brand he or she represents."
Instead of targeting the electorate through shades of magenta, Butler said spin doctors should create a fun, experiential campaign. "I would suggest creatively taking the key ‘game-changing’ policies and promises and turning them into an interactive, truthful experience within towns, cities and villages at peak times.
"Turn an articulated truck into a political party discovery zone, with a screen and theatre seating for Q&A and VT presentations and interactive zones for games and entering personal information."
However Gallop said he was not so optimistic. "I fear for what's next from political experiential, whilst quietly looking forward to some subversive enjoyment as each party royally embarrass themselves once again," he said. "Given the virtual breakdown of anything resembling a democratic process in this country, we may as well vote based on who delivers the most unintentionally hilarious misjudged experiential campaign. Frontrunners are Labour, for now..."
How do you think the political parties should activate? Comment below to let us know what you think.
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