In a striking, creative and unconventional move that has created a huge amount of earned media, Reform UK has released a party election broadcast that is as audacious as it is simple: six words on a screen for four minutes and forty seconds.
The message, “Britain is Broken. Britain Needs Reform.” is an excellent piece of language that Farage has been deploying in his interviews and debate performances.
It holds the screen in silence and is in stark contrast to most election broadcasts which tend to be verbose and coming across as fake.
In the United Kingdom, parties can choose between three set lengths of time: 2 minutes 40 seconds, 3 minutes 40 seconds, and 4 minutes 40 seconds. Reform UK went for the maximum possible length.
Reform leader Nigel Farage tweeted the video to launch it, reassuring those who watched the broadcast that their “TV isn’t broken”.
This broadcast is a powerful testament to Reform’s election narrative of rebellion.
Reform UK’s leader, Nigel Farage, is spearheading a classic populist campaign, framing the election as a battle between the elites and the rest of the population. By blaming immigrants as the source of the country’s problems, Farage taps into the frustrations and fears of his base, positioning Reform UK as the party that speaks for those who feel neglected and let down by politics-as-normal (which he argues is represented by both Labour and the Conservatives).
The election broadcast is itself an act of rebellion, a daring break from tradition that challenges viewers to reject the status quo upheld by the two main parties, Labour and Conservative. It inspires voters to spit the proverbial dummy and stick their fingers in eyes of the Westminster establishment.
It strips away any gloss to deliver a raw, unfiltered truth that resonates deeply with many across the country. The simplicity of the message is its strength, cutting through the noise to address the overriding sentiment felt by countless Britons today.
The broadcast is also clever from a practical perspective as it avoids the difficulties associated with creating a party election broadcast.
By choosing to display only six words on the screen, Reform UK bypasses the challenges of high production costs, technical quality standards, and content approval processes.
There is no need for expensive stock imagery, complex legal clearances, or regional adaptations for Welsh and Scottish audiences.
Farage launched it on the same evening that a new YouGov poll suggested the party had overtaken the Conservatives for the first time ahead of next month’s general election and was in second place behind Labour.
In the survey, Reform was put on 19%, ahead of the Tories on 18%. Labour remained top at 37%.
It could be that these numbers understate the strength of Reform UK’s position.
Leave won the EU referendum against the odds by mobilising a significant number of voters who don’t typically participate in elections and therefore weren’t included in polling results.
This is a historic party election broadcast that we’ll be talking about for decades to come; time will tell if it’s something that helps catalyse the biggest electoral upset of all time.