I love Sir Patrick, but - that sort of thing was exemplary of how the anti-Brexit campaign did not understand who they had to talk to, and how. Political campaigns like this one need to use the propaganda equivalent of heavy hammers, so that they can squash simple opinions like ripe melons. Instead they showed up with fancy decorative swords that could barely cut through butter. The decorative-sword community loved it, but nobody else took it seriously.
Possibly it was because a referendum campaign is fought in very different terms from a first-past-the-post campaign, which UK operatives are used to. In FPTP, you want to fire up your base, preach to the choir, strenghten your core support, so they'll actually show up on polling day and maybe bring a friend. You can do that by leveraging precise characteristics of this or that group, you can rely on a bedrock of shared beliefs to build your messages, and you can even plan on multi-election strategies.
In a one-off referendum you just need a massive amount of votes. There is no precision, there is little space for subtlety. You need to build bridges with very simple messages that can resonate with the largest possible demographics in the fastest possible way. Preaching to the choir is pointless - anyone who feels strongly about the specific issue, will show up no matter what. You need to persuade the dubious to show up for you. A Monty-Pythonesque sketch will not do that; a lot of people won't even get it, or will get it wrong. A funny guy going around promising unicorns and rainbows will do nicely, though.
Possibly it was because a referendum campaign is fought in very different terms from a first-past-the-post campaign, which UK operatives are used to. In FPTP, you want to fire up your base, preach to the choir, strenghten your core support, so they'll actually show up on polling day and maybe bring a friend. You can do that by leveraging precise characteristics of this or that group, you can rely on a bedrock of shared beliefs to build your messages, and you can even plan on multi-election strategies.
In a one-off referendum you just need a massive amount of votes. There is no precision, there is little space for subtlety. You need to build bridges with very simple messages that can resonate with the largest possible demographics in the fastest possible way. Preaching to the choir is pointless - anyone who feels strongly about the specific issue, will show up no matter what. You need to persuade the dubious to show up for you. A Monty-Pythonesque sketch will not do that; a lot of people won't even get it, or will get it wrong. A funny guy going around promising unicorns and rainbows will do nicely, though.