Why every political post needs a message, even the funny ones
The jokes and gimmicks are there to carry the message, not replace it. Ben Guerin, co-founder of Topham Guerin, told POLITICO that Andy Burnham is “a properly online prime minister” whose team deserves credit for its pace, but that the real test will be how it handles bad news.
- Publication
- POLITICO
- By
- John Johnston
- Published
- 30 July 2026
- Type
- Press coverage
- Topics
-
- political social media
- government communications
- UK politics
- content strategy
What we did
- Ben says Burnham’s team deserves credit for how much it has done online, and how fast
- The hard part is still to come: so far it has all been good news, and nobody has seen how the team handles bad news
- Ben calls it the Mary Poppins approach: the best political content has enough sugar, a joke or a gimmick, to get people to notice, and always some medicine: the message
Read the full article at POLITICODowning Street doomscroll: “Burnham is clearly terminally online, right? He is a properly online prime minister,” says Ben Guerin, co-founder of creative firm Topham Guerin, which worked on the 2019 U.K. general election campaign for the Tories. “Whether it’s him actually posting stuff or his team posting it, he’s built that culture, and he clearly understands the value of this stuff.”
Viral vice: Guerin agrees that politicians who meet the demand from voters to speak in plain language will see their content perform well, even amongst those who may disagree with them… and the gimmick is just a nice-to-have.
“But we haven’t seen what the Burnham playbook looks like for bad news and that’s going to be the big test.”
Ben Guerin
“There’s a key message in every piece of content, and yeah, we wash it down with a funny joke or a gimmick, but there has to be a key reason why every single piece of content exists, and that’s how we get our messaging across.”
Ben Guerin
Questions & answers
How does Topham Guerin use humour in campaign content?
Ben Guerin calls it the Mary Poppins approach. The best political content has enough sugar, a joke or a gimmick, to make people stop and notice, and always some medicine: a clear message that is the reason the post exists.
What does Ben Guerin make of Andy Burnham’s social media?
He told POLITICO that Burnham is “a properly online prime minister” whose team deserves credit for the pace and variety of its work, but that the big test will be how it handles bad news.