During the U.S. presidential election, one phrase was almost ubiquitous, whether you liked it or not: “Make America Great Again”. The slogan was reiterated by Donald Trump and his supporters for months; it was seen on billboards and hats and inevitably became an intrinsic part of Trump’s campaign. Knowing how vital the slogan was to his campaign, Trump has already announced his slogan for the 2020 campaign: “Keep America Great!”.
The importance of a good slogan has never been a secret, but it had never been used in such a prevalent manner prior to Trump.
Having such a popular slogan to sum up Trump’s message was undoubtedly effective – it reduced all of his policies, speeches and rallies into one succinct soundbite for the masses, one that they applauded time and time again. Thus, whether they’d like to admit or not, of course, other politicians would want to try and emulate Trump’s success with a widespread slogan.
With the UK snap general election underway, the Conservative Party has wasted no time in trying to capitalise on their chosen slogan. “Strong and stable” has been the inescapable phrase of the election so far, with Prime Minister Theresa May mentioning it at least 57 times in the past 12 days since the election was announced. In fact, when May initially announced the plans for a snap election, she used the phrase 3 times in her statement, debuting the slogan as quickly as possible. May particularly uses the phrase to refer to her and the Conservative Party’s “strong and stable leadership”, even citing it as one of the original reasons to call the snap election: “to secure the strong and stable leadership the country needs”.
However, the barrage of the slogan has been met with a much more lukewarm response from the U.K. population than Trump’s did from Americans. Rival parties have almost ridiculed its frequent use, with Labour MP Paul Flynn questioning during the last Prime Minister’s Questions if a “Crosby chip” (referring to Lynton Crosby, the Tory election strategist) has been implanted in the brains of Tory MPs which “compels them to them to say ‘strong and stable’ every 18 seconds”.
May even used the slogan to deflect from answering a question related to Foreign Secretary Boris Johson calling Labour Party leader Jeremy Corbyn a “mugwump”. Even more recently, on the The Andrew Marr Show, Marr’s very first question to May was “Can we agree to start with that the one thing that voters deserve is no soundbites?” and went on to say it could be seen as “robotic” as May defended her repeated use of the slogan.
Marr asks Theresa May to avoid soundbites. She says it's about "having a strong and stable leadership and strong and stable government".
— Jim Waterson (@jimwaterson) April 30, 2017
Already in trouble with my 'strong and stable' drinking game. ?????#Marr
— David Schneider (@davidschneider) April 30, 2017
Therefore, while a popular slogan has been proven to define and propel an election campaign, it’s unlikely you would find “strong and stable” written on the hat of any voter in the U.K.
