For a magazine which has banged on rather a lot about advertising
having a commercial purpose, it may seem surprising that Campaign is
devoting two pages of this special issue to showcasing the issues and
worthy causes that advertising has promoted - politics, public health,
race and disability awareness and so on. After all, the cynics would say
that agencies rarely make money on such accounts, using them instead to
raise their corporate profile by being associated with power and ’good
works’.
Nonetheless we knew it would be illuminating to ask leading opinion
formers to reflect on advertising by picking an advertisement which
tackles social issues, and which they feel affected public opinion, or
their opinion.
Our aim? To show that at a time when spin-doctoring and grass-roots
activism have eclipsed advertising as the preferred tool, that
advertising still has enormous power to effect social change. And, as
with all power, to remind ourselves that it needs to be informed by
social responsibility.
The choices are, obviously, contentious; another group of opinion
formers would have picked a different set of advertisements. And, thanks
to Piers Morgan, the editor of The Mirror, it is somewhat painful too.
For Morgan argues that the advertisement he has chosen, ’demon eyes’,
changed opinion in the opposite to the way intended.
The list of contributors includes traditional keepers of power as well
as some of society’s newer and more ephemeral king-makers. We have a QC,
a poet, a style magazine editor, two leading film-makers, two charity
campaigners, a style guru, a society photographer, a tabloid editor, two
politicians and a world-class sportsman - all, in their own ways,
advocates as well as opinion formers. As a thank-you to each
contributor, Campaign is donating pounds 100 to a charity of their
choice.
I believe in positive advertising. While some of the hard-hitting ads
are excellent, I nevertheless feel that a lot of people turn away from
distressing pictorial images. The Kitchener advertisement was positive,
memorable, gained tremendous response and the results remain plain to
see.
Clarissa Baldwin is chief executive of the National Canine Defence
League
’Lord Kitchener wants you’ was more like a public service communication
than an ad, but it moved more people than anything I can remember. It
has remained with us - as a lasting image that my children would
probably recognise. As an image it was incredibly optimistic. It didn’t
give the impression of what lay ahead and yet it took people to their
death. In effect it was selling what the military strategists had
concluded, that some young men had to die to achieve the greater
good.
Eric Fellner is co-chairman of Working Title
Surely it must be the Kitchener recruiting poster of 1914, ’Your King
and Your Country Need You!’ Because it influenced so many young men to
sign up. Because it probably won the First World War while losing an
entire generation who, to misquote Wilfred Owen, ’died as cattle’ and
thus changed society forever. What other advertising campaign and slogan
has been remembered for so long?
Brian Patten is a poet
’Kitchener’ is not my favourite advertisement, but it is the one that
has had the most lasting impact on the history books - it captured the
sense of need and duty that sent so many young men to the trenches.
John Redwood is the Shadow secretary of state for environment and
transport
This was a stark and simple image. It brought the message home on both a
personal and political level. Its impact was entirely visual and did not
depend on any text. Consciences could hardly avoid being troubled by the
exploitation of animal life for the benefit of a wealthy, whimsical
fashion world, and it worked - the fur trade was severely damaged.
Michael Mansfield QC is a lawyer for the Stephen Lawrence family
Unlike most of the advertisements which your contributors will choose,
the Conservative Party’s ’demon eyes’ had the extraordinary effect of
hardening public opinion against the people who paid for the ad. The
idea that Saint Tony could in any way be the devil, as the poster
portrayed him, was so laughable and ridiculous that it merely confirmed
to large numbers of the public that the Conservatives had lost all touch
with reality.
Attacking Blair on a personal level was a disastrous own-goal for the
Tories and this advertisement personified the strategy at its worst.
Piers Morgan is the editor of The Mirror
The decision to use a poem as part of a charity advertisement was a very
strong idea, it succeeds in conveying the ineffable private grief of
losing a baby, while at the same time being clear that this is a public
problem and what can be done about it.
Geordie Greig is the editor of Tatler
I would like to nominate the latest Teacher Training Agency
advertisement, ’flight’, because it captures the wonder of learning and
the skill and imagination of a teacher. Also, in advertising teaching,
this is a commercial that brilliantly sells something which is truly
brilliant, rather than just brilliantly saleable!
David Puttnam is a producer, educational activist and Labour peer
Abram Games’ style is now very out of date and most of his clients were
organisations we’d rather not know about: the Army, the War Office,
Festival of Britain and so on. There’s something queasily nostalgic
about public service advertising at mid-century and at his worst Games’
poster designs are very clever visual puns executed in a handwriting
that is utterly distinctive. Games, the last master of the drawn
lithograph, had a personal adage about ’maximum meaning, minimum means’.
The charm of his work lies in its ability to evoke a less complicated,
more wholesome age. There’s a universe of choice, but a personal
favourite is a poster Games did in 1975 for the Royal Shakespeare
Theatre Centenary Appeal, a fine example of a brilliantly simple graphic
concept which is true to the spirit of its subject and has real
evocative power. Looks good too.
Stephen Bayley is an author and design consultant
This tremendously impactful advertisement has remained with me since I
saw it. I thought at the time, and still think now, that it was a
milestone in the way society confronted the issue of drugs. The
unvarnished truth, boldly stated, seems to me to be the strongest
advocate in persuading young people to reject drug use.
Steven Berkoff is an actor and writer
In a fraction of the time it takes to explain to someone how different
perceptions and reality can be, this immaculately directed piece of work
crystallised the thought, and demonstrated the importance of
distinguishing between the two. I should think it encouraged a
generation of liberal thinkers.
Terry O’Neil is a society photographer
I have selected the Live Aid ad because it was part of a huge change in
the way that the public responded to famine and suffering.
During the Ethiopian disaster, other media played a more significant
part in mobilising public opinion - for example, the Live Aid concert
itself and the immensely moving television footage - but I remember this
advertisement, and thinking how it had found its role. It gave voice to
one of the enduring legacies of that time, which was the creation of a
climate in which people had the confidence to know that a small act
undertaken, such as buying a book or watching a pop concert, was capable
of achieving an enormous effect, when replicated by many people. ’Do
what you can, with what you have, where you are,’ was how Roosevelt
styled it. This ad was one of our generation’s expressions of the same
thought.
The Duchess of York founded Children in Crisis
Why ’Labour isn’t working’? Above all because an attention-grabbing and
intelligible picture was accompanied by a simple and memorable
message.
Posters should be designed to ’insert’ in people’s minds a parrot-like
slogan - ’Guinness is good for you’, ’walls have ears’ - as memorable as
ITMA entry lines (I’m beginning to show my age!).
Lord Howe served as a Cabinet minister for all but the last three weeks
of Margaret Thatcher’s 11 years in Government
Coca-Cola advertisements have always embraced the global market in a
very touching way (eg, ’I’d like to teach the world to sing’) but this
advertisement, which ran during the Coca-Cola Cup in 1997, impressed me
by its direct inclusion of a group who may well have felt excluded by
advertisements showing healthy athletes performing at the highest
level.
Top golfer Colin Montgomerie is the ’British Ambassador of Sport’,
according to The Sun.
