The Tory message isn't working...so Saatchi has been called back in.

The poster to the left was produced on the website mydavidcameron.com which exists solely to produce pastiches of Tory campaign posters. It's well worth checking out as some of them are very funny.

And it's a sign of how worried David Cameron and the Tories are becoming that they are now seeking to airbrush the advertising team who produced these highly mocked posters out of their election campaign and are reaching into the past and asking Saatchi and Saatchi, Thatchers old advertising team, to help them out.

The Saatchi creative team has been behind all of the most memorable Conservative political slogans of the past three decades, including the famous "Labour Isn't Working" billboard that helped Margaret Thatcher bring down the Labour government in 1979.

They also came up with "Labour's Tax Bombshell", which helped John Major stay in power in 1992. But M&C Saatchi's contract with the Tory party came to an abrupt end after Mr Cameron became leader, amid rumours of sharp differences of opinion about his strategy to rid the Tories of their "nasty party" image.

So yesterday's announcement from the Conservatives that they have rehired M&C Saatchi, founded by the brothers Maurice and Charles Saatchi, is a remarkable about-turn.

It's not only a remarkable U-turn, it's a sign that David Cameron is about to give up his fight to rid the Tories of their image as "the nasty party" and that the entire election is about to turn negative, for that is what Maurice and Charles Saatchi believe in.

Their contribution will be keenly awaited – three years ago, Lord (Maurice) Saatchi warned that Mr Cameron's "nicey-nicey" approach was not working. "When the Conservative Party moves along the dimension from nasty to nice, nothing happens," he said. "It follows that nothing will happen until the Conservative Party has something compelling to say about the subject that matters – economics."

It's hard not to concede that Maurice Saatchi has a point. Cameron has, until this point, had literally nothing to say; other than to point out that he is not Gordon Brown.

And, when the punters enter the election booth, that might not be enough; as they might decide to stick with the devil that they know.

But this appointment promises one thing; we had all better fasten our seat belts, because it is going to be a very bumpy ride.

"At last, the Conservatives are starting to use professionals who have actually won elections before. If M&C Saatchi can produce the kind of brilliant work that we did, it will have a dramatic effect on the election outcome. This will frighten the other side."

Of course, there is another way that Cameron could greatly effect the outcome of the election; he could open his mouth and tell us just what it is exactly that he plans to do. But I won't be holding my breath waiting for that any time soon.

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Tags: Cameron, Saatchi and Saatchi, Labour, Tories, UK election 2010