Watching the Conservatives' pre-General Election advertising push get under way in earnest has conjured up thoughts of how companies might be marketing their products if they were to follow the example of the Tories.

 

The piece of pre-election propaganda which has really caught the eye in recent days is that poster, in the style of a cheap horror flick, warning of what might happen if Labour were to win the election or, worse still, we are told by the Conservatives, if Ed Miliband formed a coalition government with the SNP.

The left-hand side of the poster shows a grinning Mr Miliband outside 10 Downing Street, with the message: "Your worst nightmare...". The right-hand side features an image of Mr Miliband and former First Minister Alex Salmond , each with an arm round the other's shoulder, and finishes off the message with the words "...just got worse".

Underneath, the propaganda continues thus: "The SNP would prop up Ed Miliband - meaning chaos for Britain. Vote Conservative."

Just for good measure, in another poster released in the last couple of days, the Conservatives have now added in Sinn Fein president Gerry Adams on the right-hand panel, with Messrs Miliband and Salmond, with the message: "Your worst nightmare... ...just got even worse. The SNP and Sinn Fein propping up Ed Miliband? Chaos for Britain". And, with the marketeers obviously on a roll by now, we have a headline slapped over the trio's chests, which blares: "DESPERATE LABOUR WOOING SINN FEIN."

Such a negative and aggressive approach by the Conservatives, while perhaps understandable given their shaky economic record not just over the last four-and-a-half years but during the 1980s and early 1990s, is lamentable. It might be worth considering whether the posters also raise the question of who is actually desperate - people will have to make up their own minds on that one.

What the publication of the Miliband-Salmond poster also did was conjure up somewhat amusing thoughts of how companies might market their products if their own offerings, like the Conservatives' economic track record, were not that good.

A household products manufacturer might declare that, while its bleach killed only 10 per cent of germs, its competitors' products did not kill any at all. In fact, they did not even contain bleach.

Or, in an imaginary world with fewer public health rules, a meat processor producing burgers containing 10 per cent anti-inflammatory-tainted horsemeat might argue that a competitor's product contained 20 per cent.

The Tory posters, obviously, do not give any indication that the Conservative-Liberal Democrat Coalition Government's economic track record leaves a great deal to be desired.

The "chaos" word, as well as featuring on the posters, has also been much used by Prime Minister David Cameron in his attempts to claim that Labour would not be good on the economy.

However, while it is impossible to know exactly what would have happened had Labour won the 2010 General Election, the Coalition Government's shortcomings on the economy are plain for all to see.

Growth has not come through as we were told it would by Chancellor George Osborne and his Coalition colleagues. The economic recovery was delayed, amid excessive and badly-targeted austerity, and has since proved stuttering and then unbalanced.

Gross domestic product figures published earlier this week added to a recent slew of evidence that the recovery is not only unbalanced but also running out of steam. Growth slowed more sharply than expected in the fourth quarter to 0.5 per cent, equivalent to an annualised pace of two per cent, meaning it has now fallen back below its long-term historical average rate.

Companies, especially the likes of big major global corporations, often face criticism of their advertising methods.

But there have, over the decades, been major changes in what is, and what is not, permitted.

There is obviously the crucial issue of being able to prove the points you are making, and on occasion sanctions if this cannot be done.

Marketing of toys in commercial breaks between children's television programmes, and the advertising of fast-food and, increasingly, high-sugar products are also subjects of debate.

Plain packaging for tobacco is currently a hot topic. You can see how far we have come on this front when you think back to decades past when television commercials featured glamorous footage of people smoking in motor cars.

Meanwhile, adverts for alcohol now come with messages about drinking responsibly.

So, complain as some might about corporate advertising, it is generally responsible enough. People know that they are digesting marketing material which presents the enjoyment of the products or services in an airbrushed, ideal world.

Such corporate advertising is not, certainly in the UK, full of negative messages and spurious claims about rival products which cannot be substantiated.

Unfortunately, the same cannot be said of much of the political advertising we will be seeing from various quarters in the run-up to the General Election.

Much of it will not be worth the paper it is written on. Remember the Liberal Democrats' giant poster ahead of the 2010 election, which declared: "Tory VAT Bombshell. You'd pay £389 more a year in VAT under the Conservatives." In the end, Liberal Democrat leader Nick Clegg formed the Coalition Government which delivered a VAT hike.

The Tories' mock horror flick posters featuring Messrs Miliband, Salmond and Adams epitomise form over substance.

People are in the habit of looking through corporate advertising to see the non-airbrushed version of what is on offer. They need to be far more careful still when it comes to political advertising.