The Power of the Placard
Get the public's attention, and make your argument... in one short sentence.
That's the challenge facing every person who's ever tried to write a placard for a protest march. It's the political equivalent of a Haiku poem.
An Ad agency might get there with focus groups and latte-fuelled brain-storms, but the student protests have shown you can do it on a budget.
The first approach is to raise a smile. How about:
"We don't need no edumacation! ... obviously..."
or brevity and rhyme combined:
"9K No way!"
There was philosophy and economics, this placard could have been an exam discussion point:
"Public Debt: Bad, Private Debt: Good?"
The Lib Dems took a pasting of course:
"Nick is a rotten Clegg"
..was one of the only printable comments.
There was even some amazing craft work - with enterprising students who'd designed cardboard scissors, and one amazing bloke dressed head to toe in bank notes with this slogan on the back:
"Do you think I'm made of money?"
A now infamous clip shows The BBC Political Editor Nick Robinson stamping on a placard that was being waved behind him when he was live on air, and there was one referring to that:
"Try to break this, Nick Robinson - you meretricious twit!"
When I bumped into him in the House of Commons Press gallery this week he confirmed that he had seen it. "I had to look that word up" he laughed.
Perhaps education standards are rising!
What slogans have you spotted? Any favourites from the past? Or ones the students might like to try? Please comment below!
Welcome to the hustings! I'm Peter Henley, the BBC's political reporter in the south of England. From parish councils in Sussex, to European politics in Oxford, this is the blog for you. 
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