The Futures Company

Andrew Curry writes:

We’ve been sharing some of the puzzlement about the ‘Britainthinks’ posters which have appeared since the New Year. The claim on the website is that “Britainthinks is an independent space where the opinions of the British public can be publicly expressed.” But it turns out that they’re actually a cunning plan by the ad industry to promote the value of outdoor as an advertising platform. So, obviously it’s worked, since we’ve been exchanging emails and I’ve been moved to write a blog post about it.

But the slogans they’ve chosen to provoke Britain to thought seem carelessly unimaginative. The ‘Career Women Make Bad Mothers‘ posters had to be pulled after a howl of disapproval on Mumsnet (more than a thousand posts at time of writing) , which I suppose goes to prove the point of the Outdoor Advertising Association’s chief executive that outdoor can drive online traffic. Be careful what you wish for.

And as for ‘Educashun isn’t working‘ (see what they did there?), for people of my generation it inevitably recalls – no doubt deliberately – the Saatchi campaign which elected Margaret Thatcher in 1979. So much so that when my son asked me about it I told him (before I’d found out about the OAA’s thumbprints) it was probably put up ahead of this year’s election by a group which supported the Conservative party.