The vagaries of political events management

Earlier posts have noted that if the experiential marketing approach is accepted (and I am not saying it should be) as a framework for understanding politics, then elections should be viewed as akin to events. As a consequence, elections are spectacles which provide entertainment as well as information. Whilst election campaigns stress their overall ideologies, policies and strategies, it may be that more generic events management skills are required. This is not to say they don't already play a role in elections, but they are probably seen as very functional and so low-key in strategic importance.

However, I note in this campaign, as with previous ones in the UK, what appear to be event management oversights can affect the campaign. In a previous post I highlighted the consequences for Labour of not checking that Gordon Brown was allowed to take the media into a school, and now Labour again have been pulled up. This time it is the children's cartoon Peppa Pig who was due, apparently, to be part of a Labour visit to a pre-school. This one rather beggars belief, surely the political antennae is saying that the commercial owners of this programme would never agree to the asscoaition of their 'product' with partisan politics. Yes, as part of a Government education/reading campaign, but during an election? Surely not.

Overall this does make one think that basic event management skills of having a check list of all the details might not be given the priority it should. Or do these two examples suggest that it is only Labour that really need to take professional event management advice?

I am reminded that childrens' shows, particularly pigs, have before been involved in political issues. A Pinky and Perky show, You Too Could Be Prime Minister, during the 1966 election was originally banned by the BBC, but when aired its audience was higher than Labour's PEB.