Ken goes ape as Mayor race hots up

The Mayor's aides have already drawn up a £400,000 campaign communications plan which will be launched within weeks. At its heart will be a series of newspaper adverts, billboard posters and YouTube clips featuring Mr Livingstone thought up by award-winning firm Fallon.

Its recent innovative Dairy Milk advert, which featured images of a gorilla playing drums to Phil Collins hit In The Air Tonight, captured the public imagination.

The development emerged as Mr Livingstone and Tory candidate Mr Johnson clashed angrily in the first televised debate of the campaign, which is screened tonight on ITV.

Mr Johnson tore into the Mayor after he blamed violent movies and a breakdown of society under Margaret Thatcher for the problems of gang crime in London.

The agency chosen by the Mayor is part of the same group as Saatchi & Saatchi, which helped bring down the Labour government in 1979 with the famous "Labour Isn't Working" slogan and recently produced "Not Flash, Just Gordon" for the new Prime Minister.

Harry Barlow, who earns £88,000 a year as Mr Livingstone's communications adviser, will lead the team of agency executives. He has worked on the Mayor's newspaper, The Londoner, and the advertising campaign for the congestion charge and he is believed to be the brain behind the Mayor's LOND-ON logo.

He will be joined by key members of "Team Ken" including chief-of-staff Simon Fletcher, policy director Redmond O'Neill and director of media Joy Johnson, who are currently still working on their City Hall jobs.

It has been revealed the Mayor expects to raise about £1million to pay for his campaign from a variety of sources, including Labour Party coffers, local fund-raising events and individual donations. He was also likely to benefit from advertising paid for by Labour's London Assembly candidates. Mr Barlow, who also runs his own campaigning ad agency, told the Standard: "In the six-week period before the election we can spend £420,000 but...we expect to raise about £1 million in total.

"All the usual activities will be taking place at a local level - art auctions, dinners, local events - as well as donations from individuals."

Mayoral candidates are forbidden from using television and radio adverts, although they qualify for statutory party political broadcasts.

Mr Barlow said Fallon, which lists Orange and Sony among its clients, produced some of the most "innovative and creative" adverts in the market. He added: "They're very exciting and a much newer style of agency with a more fresh approach to campaigns and more integrated ideas. For example, the gorilla worked well on YouTube. We hope to get Ken on the digital media, including YouTube."

His campaign will be run from Labour headquarters at Westminster and will focus on issues seen as his successes - the Olympics, Crossrail and congestion charge.

Last month Mr Johnson appointed Australian strategist Lynton Crosby, who oversaw a dismal defeat by former Tory leader Michael Howard when he was hired at the last general election, to work alongside campaign manager Dan Ritterband. Mr Crosby is described as a "master of the dark political arts" and is certain to toughen up the public image of the mild mannered and jovial Mr Johnson.