When slogans create a stink

Tom Tugendhat, one of the six or seven candidates standing for the leadership of the Conservative Party, changed an online advertisement for his campaign after it was pointed out that the initial letters of the four-line slogan spelt out a word that sent the wrong message:

- JOHN RENTOUL

Together we can:

Unite the party.

Rebuild trust.

Defeat Labour.

The last line was changed to: "Win back the country."

There hasn't been such a public relations hiccup since... the last Conservative leadership campaign. Penny Mordaunt had to reedit her campaign launch video in 2022 because Jonnie Peacock, the Paralympic athlete, objected to his image being used. Footage of a smiling police officer, clearly identifiable, was also removed, as was a clip from an interview with Sarah Gilbert, the co-developer of the AstraZeneca Covid-19 vaccine, as it had been used without her permission.

Longer ago, in 2005, David Davis's campaign for the Tory leadership got into trouble for one of its slogans, "It's DD for Me", after it was printed on T-shirts that were worn by two of his young female supporters - one of whom, Fay Jones, went on to become a Tory MP herself. She was asked at her selection meeting if she had ever done anything to embarrass the party. "I had to say yes," she said recently. She added: "I was later asked what I had learnt from the incident, and I said 'That I do not look good in pink."" She was defeated by a Liberal Democrat on 4 July.