Campaign Fail
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The referendum viewed as marketing
The campaigns run by both sides in the recent referendum were failures. Here’s why. Remain – a classic negative campaign that backfired Remain vote’s tagline was Britain Stronger In Europe. At first glance this seems fair enough. But look again and you’ll see how extraordinarily passive it is. With no verb there is nothing to be done. Instead there is the hanging comparator…
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5 ways this HMRC marketing tactic is not okay
1. This is not okay because despite it being a threat to tax dodgers, its imagery unambiguously accuses you. It’s aim as a piece of marketing is to deliberately make you feel paranoid. 2. This is not okay because it is intrusive. This tactic has been chosen to threaten you as you are about to embark on the…
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Five favourite marketing aliens
As Jim Morrison of The Doors sang, People are strange, when you’re a stranger. And you don’t get stranger than aliens. Here’s my list of top five aliens in British marketing. 1. The Argos Aliens. These aliens are useless boring blue things with spindly necks, and poor dress sense. They spend their time loafing about…
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HMRC undeclared income campaign
I encountered the new HMRC campaign for the first time this morning at a cashpoint. As I was waiting for my hard-earned cash to be vended, a pair of piercing blue eyes stared up at me from the screen, with the line ‘We’re closing in on undeclared income’. It was the most unpleasantly Orwellian moment…
Peter Kenny: a writer's notebook 