The Metropolitan Police has appointed Collett Dickenson Pearce to
overhaul its marketing and public relations requirements.
The move reunites London’s police force with the agency that produced
award-winning campaigns for it in the early 90s and brings Chris
Macleod, the managing director of CDP, back to a piece of business he
used to run at Laing Henry and later at Saatchi and Saatchi.
Macleod explained that the Met’s communications audit would go back to
basics. CDP will investigate what the police force hopes to achieve
through its communications, including PR, promotions and advertising,
and compare this with what it is doing at present.
The agency has been asked to prepare recommendations by the end of the
year.
‘This strategic review may or may not include advertising,’ Macleod
commented.
The Met has used various communication approaches in the past. These
have included warnings to the public about crime, such as its recent
anti-burglary push, ‘operation bumble bee’, through Saatchi and Saatchi.
Commercials have also been used to try to encourage the public to co-
operate more with its officers, as well as for recruitment.
CDP’s award-winning work was part of a recruitment drive designed
principally to attract potential policemen of various ethnic
backgrounds. However, the campaign also played a part in improving the
image of the Metropolitan Police force.
One of the ads showed a black man running along a street, being pursued
by a policeman. The copy revealed that the black man is, in fact, a
plain clothes officer working in tandem with the uniformed white man.
