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Overview
This badge represents the adoption of American-style election campaigning by New Zealand political parties. In 1987, the National Party's election campaign took on the Labour government led by David Lange. Jim Bolger's National campaign launch in Hastings was a colourful, ticker-tape event. At the later Wellington rally, The Evening Post newspaper reported a 'glee club atmosphere, and abundance of hats, streamers and blue balloons' (3 August 1987).
On the other side of the political divide, the Labour Party featured American television stars such as Ed Asner praising the government's nuclear-free policy.