Am I allowed to mention Nigel Farage? Of course I am, this is The Spectator, and its readers enjoy analysing all kinds of people and ideas, even those they find unpalatable. Readers of Campaign, however, aren’t quite as broad-minded. Campaign is the trade magazine of the advertising industry, and when it published an interview with Farage some of its readers went into meltdown.
Why? Surely Farage is the ideal subject for Campaign. He’s connected with millions of loyal consumers in ways other brands can only dream of. You’d think that people in the advertising world would want to hear how he did it, given that building brands and connecting with people are exactly what they’re supposed to do. You’d think they might want to learn from someone who’s done these things so recently, quickly and successfully. But you’d be wrong.
For about 20 years, the advertising industry has engaged itself in a bizarre charade called ‘Pretending to be left-wing’. Instead of talking about advertising, the pages of Campaign are filled with industry leaders espousing standard-issue, establishment-approved liberal values. And although advertising remains the acme of capitalism, they like to pretend it’s a compassionate, caring, almost anti-capitalist co-operative.
It’s almost beyond satire, because it’s hard to imagine a more ruthless, right-wing industry than advertising. Its very purpose is to capitalise on capitalism and make a great deal of money. This template was pretty much set up by Charles Saatchi and Margaret Thatcher, and Campaign itself is owned by Michael Heseltine. How much more ‘Tory’ can you get? But rare is the advertising person with the courage and candour to confess to voting Conservative — and I’m not sure there’s a single one who’d admit to admiring the promotional prowess of Nigel Farage.
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