From viral X post to actual billboard

A few days ago, I wrote about whether brands should take a stance on politics this election season.

It’s not a choice you should make lightly, as you run the risk of alienating your brand in the process.

So, if you’re going to do it, you may as well say it with your whole chest, right?

Take it from Ben Golik.

In June, Golik leveraged a shocking political moment to create what’s been hailed as one of the defining ads of the UK election campaign.

The only issue was that his ad wasn’t real. Until now.

Golik's ad was created in response to Rishi Sunak, Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, who ran out of the 80-year commemoration of D-Day earlier this year to film an ITV interview. This move was widely criticised. In fact, observers called it 'political malpractice of the highest order.'

Present at the D-Day event were many prominent world leaders such as Joe Biden and Volodymyr Zelenskiy. There were also many veterans who probably wouldn’t attend another due to their age. So it's no surprise political figures found Sunak's absence shocking and out-of-touch.

After the event, a mock-up of a billboard began trending on X.

And everybody thought the ad was the work of Sunak's opposing party, Labour.

But the billboard was actually the independent work of Ben Golick, creative director at Uncommon.

The mock-up billboard featured an AI-generated image of Sunak running off to the side of the poster. The chilling typography said, ‘He left them on the beaches,’ followed by, ‘Lest we forget, come July 4' – a reference to the upcoming general election.

The X post amassed 1.2 million views and received a wave of positive feedback.

The Drum took notice of the creative and revealed the story behind Golik’s widely shared poster.

Ben Golik told them he felt Sunak’s actions were 'baffling' and 'almost like self-sabotage.' As an Australian himself, Golik said even he understood the importance of D-DAY in Britain.

'The first that came to mind were the Churchill words, "We should fight them on the beaches." With that, it fell into place quite quickly,' he explains.

'It’s not hard to write a good headline when you’re referencing Churchill, who himself was referencing Shakespeare. I’m standing on good shoulders there.'

Golick simply opened Illustrator and typed the headline, ‘He left them on the beaches’ right off the bat. There were no other iterations.

In terms of typography and layout, the work was a nod to Saatchi & Saatchi’s famous 'Labour Isn’t Working' line from 1978.

But despite what many assumed, Golik’s mock-up wasn’t affiliated with any political party whatsoever.

The Aussie creative just felt compelled to create it after Sunak’s actions.

The billboard mock-up also never appeared in the real world.

Until now.

'The people’s poster has become a real poster, and the meme has made it to the streets,' Golik said in a tweet on July 1st.

Now, the ad has appeared on sites in London and Manchester, with the assistance of media buyers Build Hollywood, Craft Media, and Goodstuff.

Golik said he had been approached by various political parties, which he won’t disclose, who wished to appropriate the work. But he decided to keep the ad unbranded as an unendorsed comment on the prime minister’s character.

Go off king.

Despite being unbranded, this piece of creative is still an example of clever and careful political messaging.

It also shows the power of taking advantage of important and influential moments as they happen.

And that's what we love to see in advertising, relevancy and relatability.

Three things that make this a great piece of political marketing:

Timing and relevance. This one's self-explanatory, right?

Creativity and boldness. This ad captured the public’s attention, which moved it from a viral internet moment into the real world.

Unbranded messaging can be powerful. The decision to keep the billboard unbranded allows the piece to serve as an independent comment on the prime minister’s character. This highlights the power of knowing your message, and how to craft it well. This approach can be effective for brands wishing to make a statement without being seen as partisan.

This story is a brilliant example of political advertising done right. Something to take note of in this extremely rocky landscape.

-Sophie, Writer