Weigel

Romney Goes Classic

Clicking around on In These Times (!), I noticed this ad directing me to Mitt Romney’s campaign site.

Those people aren’t dressed like Americans in the year 2011, are they? No. That’s because this is copied from (or lovingly designed in tribute to!) a classic ad run by the UK’s Conservative Party against the incumbent Labour Party in 1979.

UPDATE: Romney adman Stuart Stevens tells me the tribute was intentional, and that there are parallels between Thatcher’s 1979 victory and today.

“The unemployment rate in England was lower than today in US,” says Stevens. “The thing that no one has focused on is that Obama is headed to be the first President in modern history to have a net loss in jobs. No President has ever been re-elected with a net loss job record… because no President has ever had a net loss.”