In some countries, North Korea for example, I imagine you could walk around the streets carrying an eight-foot effigy of the head finance minister and get very little reaction. You might meet someone carrying a giant picture of the minister for agriculture coming the other way.
Not so in Manchester's Canal Street. I don't imagine Gordon Brown is seen there very often, and never carried aloft through the gay village by young men.
But to get a sense of what Manchester thought of Labour's heir apparent, we did exactly that - carried an eight-foot portrait around the town.
The response was mostly bewilderment, the occasional giggle, followed by a stony failure to react at all when on camera. We got the occasional, 'Oh, Hello Gordon.' One or two things unfit to print on a family web log.
One drinker on Canal Street asked politely who we were, and what we were doing. When asked the same question, he pointed at giant Gordon and said 'I work for him.' He took some pictures and called in to warn someone what was happening, but happily last night's interview went ahead as planned.
And full marks to the bus driver who shouted, 'We don't want a Scotsman for PM'. Why not? We've had one for the past nine years...
Watch Channel4 News's coverage of the speech here.
We now have to decide what to do with our eight-foot picture of Gordon Brown. Suggestions welcome.