In the spring of 1997, Britain was in the throes of a general election.
Tony Blair and Gordon Brown had re-invented Labour, and the party was insurgent.
The incumbent Conservative Party, on the other hand, were in a mess and up against it.
The country had grown weary of its failed promise of trickle-down prosperity, principally because it was all a sham.
Never more so than in Scotland where Labour had always polled well.
So it was an either brave or deluded Conservative campaign chairman that had decided that the line for its 48 sheet poster campaign north of the border should be thus:
Your Best Bet For A Better Scotland – Vote Conservative.
It was a type-only affair, modestly laid out, boasting a small box with a blue tick in it.
Crucially, there was a lot of white space. And this was to be its downfall.
It was late one Saturday night when I saw the posting.
It sat on a small rise above a well-known pub in the west of the city. The pub’s clients, worse for wear from a night of drinking, were falling out on to the streets.
Here my imagination takes over and attempts to join the dots on what had latterly happened prior to my arrival on the scene.
A punter is taking a moment to get his bearings, clear his head, and is maybe looking to hail a cab when he spies the poster.
It doesn’t exactly chime with his polictical views.
What happened next to again subject to conjecture. My best guess is that our hero ran home and was back in a thrice with a can of red spray paint. I say this because when I happened upon the board that fateful night it read:
Your Best Bet For A Better Scotland: Vote Conservative MY ARSE!
An early example of guerrilla marketing perhaps?
Brand takeover?
Possibly.
What I do know is that the size, position, and general air of anarchic chaos of the daubed addition had transformed the world dullest poster into a potential award-winner.
And that I laughed my socks off.
Especially as the cad who had applied the amendment had had to scamper up a pretty steep incline to do so.
But as we all know, getting great creative to run is never a walk in the park.
Blokewriter 
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