How the PR gurus put Thatcher into power

Non-fiction: Mad Men And Bad Men What Happened When British Politics Met Advertising By Sam Delaney. Faber & Faber, €19. Reviewed by Andrew Lynch

Gordon Brown and Tony Blair were both targets of personalised political adverts
Gordon Brown and Tony Blair were both targets of personalised political adverts

In the summer of 1978, Margaret Thatcher’s PR team showed her what would turn out to be the most famous British political advertisement of all time. Designed by the firm Saatchi & Saatchi, it was a picture of a lengthy dole queue topped off by the simple pun, “Labour isn’t working”.

At first, she was distinctly unimpressed, snorting: “You know perfectly well that ...