Not flash, just Gordon
[15] In his first months as prime minister, Brown benefited from a polling bounce, with Labour taking the lead back from the Conservatives.
[30] Designed by the agency, this poster involved an image of Brown looking modest, thoughtful, and wearing a lightly creased suit beside the advertising slogan[31] "Not flash, just Gordon".
[27][32] On 12 September 2007, because of the poster,[33][34] Labour and Saatchi signed a contract worth several million pounds, and the agency was given control over the party's advertising for the next general election.
[37] By 16 September, an advertising campaign for the slogan had been launched by the agency,[38] with the poster displayed on billboards and used in political adverts in preparation for a 2007 snap election.
[41] On 5 October, an opinion poll held by the News of the World had the Conservatives with a six-point lead over Labour in 83 swing seats.
[45][46] In 2017, an article in the Prospect magazine revealed that Saatchi had drafted other campaign posters for the Labour Party, which were then shown to focus groups of swing voters in August 2007.
[53] It made a virtue of Brown's perceived lack of charisma, a trait that was central to Blair's political persona,[51] and also depicted him as truthful instead of spinful.
[15] The slogan also implicitly[47] compared Brown with Conservative leader David Cameron, who shared Blair's perceived superficiality.
[58] In an article for The Independent, the Campaign's Claire Beale said: "If the 'not flash' line is anything to go by, Labour's approach will be to ditch the hyperbole and focus on Brown's integrity.
[37][60][61] Philip Gould, who worked on the campaign, claimed that the slogan was a word play on the character in his 2011 book The Unfinished Revolution: How New Labour Changed British Politics Forever.
[27][36] The Campaign's Claire Beale said the original poster was "a great start" for any attempts by Saatchi to regain its 1980s prominence.
[66] The Independent's Andy McSmith echoed her opinion, saying that the poster gave Saatchi "the prospect of recapturing some of its former prominence".
The poster took advantage of the voters' positive views of Brown in his first months as prime minister, with his awkward traits making them believe that he was truthful and straightforward, and that he did not use spin.
Not you, just Gordon", in reference to Labour's refusal to call a referendum for the ratification of the Treaty of Lisbon, which affected the constitutional foundations of the European Union.
