As a journalist, I like to stay out of the story. I'm happiest on the sideline, just keeping a beady eye on the plays.
But I've just discovered I inadvertently helped Labour come up with its new campaign slogan after Andrew Little stepped aside as leader.
It all came down to a text message conversation I had with the woman we now call Prime Minister.
I had no idea I had any involvement in the decision, until Jacinda Ardern made a speech at Parliament this morning.
The story goes like this: Labour had a brand new leader, Jacinda Ardern. In some ways her appointment was great timing and the party rode a wave of renewed interest in Labour all the way to the election.
In other ways, it was terrible timing. Volunteers were still picking out the splinters they got putting up hoardings of Andrew Little all around the country. Those hoardings featured the slogan 'A fresh approach', which was mocked almost immediately for its supermarket-style messaging.
During her speech at a post-election conference today, Ardern said after she was made leader, she gave her team just 72 hours to come up with a new campaign. It was a "blessing and a curse," she said.
Two days after she was selected, her team put together a video about Ardern's "busy first two days." It ended with the words 'Let's do this."
"Midway through our 72 hours while I was debating slogans with the copious use of words like 'future', I got a text from a journalist asking whether we were going to adopt the slogan 'Let's do this'," she said.
"I laughed. That didn't have any of my lofty aspirations contained within it. Why would I sell ourselves short with so few syllables?
"I even remember telling Kelvin Davis about the text, who replied, 'I actually quite like that slogan.'
"Which got me thinking."
And so it became Labour's slogan.
Guilty - that journalist was me. Ardern has confirmed it. I'd seen the video and thought it looked like a slogan. I thought it was good. I thought it captured the momentum and the kind of mood for change Ardern was talking about.
"Is 'Let's do this' your new campaign slogan," I texted her. "Just a cheeky guess based on the little campaign video."
"Ha! No decisions made on that front!" she replied.
But then she wouldn't rule it out.
I was pretty sure I was on the money, so I wrote a speculative piece on what I was convinced the new slogan would be.
'Called it,' I thought smugly when Labour unveiled 'Let's do this' as its new slogan.
Turns out that's not quite what happened.
Newshub.
