The TUC, the GLC, the Labour Party, Amnesty International, War on
Want and the National Union of Teachers sounds like a roll call of the
left and the worthy, rather than a client list.
But BMP DDB has always taken on social and political advertising for
unions, charities, the public sector and most famously, the Labour
Party.
Chris Powell, BMP’s chief executive, says: ’We’ve been fortunate to be
involved not only in a great many of these campaigns, but in many of the
great ones.’
He says BMP’s involvement with this type of work is not a
conscience-salving exercise but is carried out because the agency is
interested in ’applying the skills learned in the market to areas beyond
the commercial: to politics, social issues, public debate and
education’.
The agency’s first political campaign was for the TUC in 1971. ’The
Heath Government had introduced the Industrial Relations Bill limiting
the powers of trade unions. We heard that the TUC wanted to run a
campaign against it and there was some sort of pitch, which we won,’
Powell explains. A press ad called ’shut up and keep working’ was
created by Tim Delaney and Derek Dear and
focused on workers’ rights. A second ad, ’Agitators. Troublemakers.
Reds’, was intended to change public perceptions of shop stewards. While
the work won awards, Powell says the TUC was a difficult client. ’Every
word of copy had to be negotiated like a pay-bargaining deal. Geoff
Howard-Spink and I had to do it in shifts because we lacked the
stamina.’
Following the TUC work, BMP was approached by other organisations
including the Civil and Public Services Association, the Association of
Metropolitan Authorities and NALGO. ’Given the sheer number of social
and political campaigns we have done, what tends to happen is that
clients find us rather than us actively seeking this kind of work,’ Ross
Barr, joint managing director, says.
Of all the social and political work the agency has produced, Barr is
proudest of that done for the GLC in 1984. To counter the Thatcher
Government’s plan to abolish the GLC, BMP ran a campaign focusing on
local democracy and the damaging consequences of Whitehall attempting to
run London.
Powell recalls: ’Advertising was never going to stop the bill going
through the Commons because the Conservatives had such a big majority,
but it did change public opinion. In January 1984, opposition to
abolition was about 50 per cent and there were lots of ’don’t knows’. By
December opposition was 74 per cent.’
Barr adds: ’After the campaign, abolition was a lot more unpopular than
the Government expected. Although it didn’t change the situation - and a
lot of people may not remember the specifics of the campaign now - it
may have left some residual feeling that this city ought to have elected
representatives.’
The GLC campaign also changed the Left’s attitude to advertising, Powell
believes. ’They used to rather distrust advertising people. Then they
saw it wasn’t an exclusively Tory tool but that it could have an impact
for good. After the GLC work, we got a reputation for social advertising
and in1984 we did a campaign for Derbyshire County Council, which is the
work I’m proudest of.’
BMP created a TV, press and poster campaign to promote the council’s
services because the public, through their rates bills, could see the
costs of local government but not the benefits. ’The Labour leader of
the council could see a role for advertising,’ Powell says. ’The sheer
capital expenditure of local government is wasted if people don’t use
the services available so we promoted bus passes, welfare rights,
trading standards and even the local museum.’
Chris Hartley, a spokesman for Derbyshire County Council, says: ’It was
pretty radical for a local authority to use advertising in this way. BMP
came up with some great work which increased the take-up of services and
is still well remembered in the area.’
The agency also worked with a number of charities and pressure groups
such as the Multiple Sclerosis Society. David Harrison, a spokesman for
the society, says: ’The ’tear’ campaign, which BMP produced in the late
80s, changed the way medical charities advertised. It was a seminal
piece of work and did the job it set out to do, which was to build
awareness of MS as a condition.’
BMP has also created campaigns for the COI including fire and crime
prevention and Family Credit. Peter Buchanan, the COI’s marketing
communications director, says: ’Throughout the 80s and 90s, BMP was one
of the top two or three agencies involved in government work.’ He says
the agency is very strong in terms of planning and ’unusually for a very
large agency, we have a lot of close attention from very senior
people’.
COI work is not always simple. ’Family Credit was all about persuading
people to come forward and take the benefits to which they were
entitled,’ Barr says. ’You’d think giving money away would be easy but
it’s not.
People are very suspicious’ Buchanan says: ’BMP has tackled some of the
trickier issues in terms of advertising, but has always done it in a
sensitive and effective way.’
Charles Gallichan, head of advertising for the Health Education
Authority, says sensitivity was also crucial to BMP’s Aids awareness
work. ’There were two campaigns: one to educate the public about modes
of transmission and the other to get people thinking in terms of buying
condoms, carrying them and negotiating their usage. The use of humour in
the ’Mrs Dawson’ and ’Geronimo’ campaigns normalised condom usage and
was very effective,’ he says.
The relationship between BMP and Labour goes back to 1972, when the
agency started work on planning for the 1974 election. In 1985, the
agency was approached by Peter Mandelson to lead the Shadow
Communications Agency, a group of volunteers centred on BMP. ’It was
exhilarating to be part of the 1987 election,’ Powell says, ’showing
that Labour could be as professional in this arena as the Tories,
although, of course, the result was a bitter disappointment.’
He continues: ’By the ’97 election, what had been voluntary became a
more regular client-agency relationship and all those who worked on the
campaign had the pleasure of sharing in that fantastic victory.’
Barr says the agency’s involvement in political and social advertising
has not affected its relationship with other, more mainstream clients
although he adds: ’We’ve had some funny comments.’
Powell adds that despite BMP’s reputation for this type of work, ’it is
a tiny part of our business. We are overwhelmingly a commercial agency
and the social and political stuff accounts for 0.1something per cent of
the work we do.’
HIGHLIGHTS FROM BMP DDB’S SOCIAL AND POLITICAL ADVERTISING
MULTIPLE SCLEROSIS In the late 80s, BMP’s work for the MS Society raised
awareness of the condition and changed the way medical charities
advertised.
FIRE PREVENTION This 1984 film for the GLC showed how shutting doors
could help prevent fires spreading.
FAMILY CREDIT This campaign for the COI persuaded families on low
incomes to come forward and claim the benefits to which they were
entitled.
DERBYSHIRE COUNTY COUNCIL BMP’s press, poster and TV work promoted
services to rate-payers and increased uptake.
LABOUR The hard-hitting ’porky pies’ ads (above) lampooned the Tories,
while in 1997 bulldog Fritz was used as a metaphor to show how New
Labour would re-energise Britain.
TUC BMP’s first political campaign, from 1971, opposed the Industrial
Relations Bill by highlighting workers’ rights.
CRIME PREVENTION This commercial from 1981 used thieving magpies to
symbolise how careless members of public made it easy for burglars to
break in.
AIDS The humour in these 1988 HEA ads encouraged the public to practise
safer sex by normalising the use of condoms.
GLC The campaign, which focused on local democracy, showed the Left that
advertising was not exclusively a Tory tool.
