Our plan was to hijack the national media attention surrounding Kensington & Chelsea candidate (and Conservative Party minister) Michael Portillo, and to bring the surreal world of Ginger Crab, Jam Wrestling and Jammie Dodgers to a much winder audience than traditional media would allow (for a fraction of the budget). Our secondary aim, obviously, was to encourage local people to vote for the flame-haired crustacean. No paving stone was left unpainted in our attempt to get our message across to the local voters. The Borough of Kensington and Chelsea was plastered from wall to wall with ‘VOTE GINGER CRAB’ posters. Manifesto leaflets were posted to everyone on the electoral register. A party political broadcast was produced and distributed to National TV stations and local newspapers. Ginger Crab and a bevy of red-haired supporters in ‘Crustacean for the nation’ t-shirts spent hours canvassing support on the street – he kissed babies, opened an old people’s home and bribed local voters with packets of Jammie Dodgers. 100 VHS copies of the Party Political Broadcast were produced and Ginger Crab received 100 votes. But more importantly, with a very limited budget we managed to hi-jack our way into virtually all the National newspapers and onto prime time television. Saatchi & Saatchi joined forces with Band & Brown to perpetrate an audacious stunt during the UK General Election of 2001. Chris Barrett, a humble PR man, made the initial sacrifice when he changed his name by deed poll to become Ginger Crab – a character from Saatchi’s Jammie Dodgers Jam Wrestling campaign. With much pomp and ceremony a press conference was organised to announce this intention to run for the seat of Kensington and Chelsea on behalf of the Jam Wrestling Party. For the next three weeks a carefully orchestrated guerrilla marketing campaign hammered home a simple message to the British public: VOTE GINGER CRAB. Backed by a guerrilla ‘VOTE GINGER CRAB’ campaign and on-the-street canvassing, we let local voters know there was a new breed of politician on the block. We used lamp post stickers, pavement stencils, fly-posted manifestos, ‘Crustacean for the nation’ T-shirts, Jam Wrestling Party rosettes and a party political broadcast distributed on VHS to get our message across in the run up to the election on June 7th 2001. Never in the field of British Politics has a crustacean come so close to being elected Prime Minister. Ginger Crab polled an unprecedented 100 votes. He may have ultimately lost his deposit, but he won the hearts and minds of the British public and put Jam Wrestling firmly on the political agenda in the UK.

Saatchi & Saatchi joined forces with Band & Brown to perpetrate an audacious stunt during the UK General Election of 2001. Chris Barrett, a humble PR man, made the initial sacrifice when he changed his name by deed poll to become Ginger Crab – a character from Saatchi’s Jammie Dodgers Jam Wrestling campaign. With much pomp and ceremony a press conference was organised to announce this intention to run for the seat of Kensington and Chelsea on behalf of the Jam Wrestling Party. For the next three weeks a carefully orchestrated guerrilla marketing campaign hammered home a simple message to the British public: VOTE GINGER CRAB.