We Are In 1984

[Mikhail Liebenstein]

I have previously written on HPC about the increase in Government Advertising. Last time I was suspicious it was being used to prop up the advertising sector, this time however I am sure that its being used to prop up the Government, aka the Labour Party prior to an election.

Just thinking about the currently list of Government Ads on commerical radio, I have the following and please add to my list:

1) Questions about child maintenance

2) Tax Credits

3) DVLA don't forget to tax your car.

4) TV licesning

5) Clamydia

6) Loft insulation

7) Carbon Trust

8) Binge drinking

9) Swine flu jabs

10) Direct Gov

11) Self assessment

12) Maths skills....back to school

There was a report in the Telegraph about 6 months ago, but I expect these figures are now out of date and the level of adverts has increased.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/5872163/Propaganda-claims-after-Government-advertising-and-marketing-spend-jumps-50-per-cent-in-a-year.html

Frankly all these Government adverts make me want to vomit. I feel a huge sense of anger every time the Government informs it captive voters that they can claim this or claim that or remind me to pay my tax.

I'd slash benefits to zero for all but the overs 70s and the most incapactated, at least they'd then have an incentive to work.

[okaycuckoo]

I've started driving again the past few months and noticed that almost all the ads on radio are "official" - you left out those depressing ones with dead children haunting the drivers who killed them.

[OnlyMe]

[OnlyMe]

Good spoof, point made. Has to be the most annoying jingle ever.

[erranta]

I was watching a prog about Africa. They were rambling on about how they are now being connected to W.W.W.

Amongst the shots of 'typical' town scenes were HUGE modern Big Brother style advert/brainwashing/listen to the voice of Big Brother panel screens.

Amongst all the poverty they stuck out like a . . . . .

This was on Town Main streets which were still MUD tracks!

[Executive Sadman]

i like the one with suggs, kelly brook and a load of other sellebrity types. Its almost like theyre trying to get in as many of them to see if they can make the most expensive ever advert.

[domo]

Thats nothing, the Government spend a lot more than that on climate change adverts, its called the BBC.

[benthebuilder]

I have previously written on HPC about the increase in Government Advertising. Last time I was suspicious it was being used to prop up the advertising sector, this time however I am sure that its being used to prop up the Government, aka the Labour Party prior to an election.

Just thinking about the currently list of Government Ads on commerical radio, I have the following and please add to my list:

1) Questions about child maintenance

2) Tax Credits

3) DVLA don't forget to tax your car.

4) TV licesning

5) Clamydia

6) Loft insulation

7) Carbon Trust

8) Binge drinking

9) Swine flu jabs

10) Direct Gov

11) Self assessment

12) Maths skills....back to school

There was a report in the Telegraph about 6 months ago, but I expect these figures are now out of date and the level of adverts has increased.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/5872163/Propaganda-claims-after-Government-advertising-and-marketing-spend-jumps-50-per-cent-in-a-year.html

Frankly all these Government adverts make me want to vomit. I feel a huge sense of anger every time the Government informs it captive voters that they can claim this or claim that or remind me to pay my tax.

I'd slash benefits to zero for all but the overs 70s and the most incapactated, at least they'd then have an incentive to work.

...or burgle your house.

[Seydel]

I'd slash benefits to zero for all but the overs 70s and the most incapactated, at least they'd then have an incentive to work.

There's eight million people of working age idle and 500 thousand advertised job vacancies in the UK according to recent newspaper reports. Let's say there's 7.8 million unemployed, those other 200 thousand are hospitalised, wheelchair-bound, blind, terminally ill, etc, which would leave 19 people chasing every job and the residue, some seven million odd souls, throwing themselves on the mercy of charities, or more likely their families in order to survive - else turning to crime.

You might yearn to live in a society where the haves retire to their beds with baseball bats under their pillows and their homes becoming fortresses festooned with alarms and CCTV cameras but I certainly don't.

[Timm]

Wind Turbine / Climate Change YouTube vid.

What's interesting about the full version of that add is that by the end of it you don't even hear what they are suggesting you do about climate change, you just feel a dull sense of unease, worry and, for some I am sure, fear. Officially, these adds are meant to inform and aid a sense of agency: the idea that one can actually do something, however little.

The short "drive five miles less" advert is pointless until one understands the concept of agency. The one above though is pure fnord.

Arrgh! I can see the fnords!

Edited January 31, 2010 by Timm

[pete.hpc]

Actually - that is another of their ads...about leave the window open, leave the laptop in the window etc

Heh, now I think about it, there really is an endless stream of state TV propoganda

Example in the ad break for the golf then : anti-smoking kits on the NHS, how wonderful Wales is and that f*cking Direct Guv one :angry:

[R K]

I say the same to my daughter every ad....'that's the state', 'that's the state', 'that's the state'. And when it gets to the kill a child one I turn it off.

Can't you just buy her a blackberry and an ipod like a normal father?

[R K]

I am the world's worst dad. Don't worry, she usually has one of them on and can't hear me anyway.

Mine retunes all the radio stations as soon as she gets in my car. Apparently young people don't like to listen to Led Zeppelin. Bizarre.

[pete.hpc]

Mine retunes all the radio stations as soon as she gets in my car

Have you tried bitch-slapping the little **** upside the head?

Edited January 31, 2010 by pete.hpc

[Georgia O'Keeffe]

I take that back about being the world's worst dad. Second at most.

[babesagainstmachines]

It's less about the content of the adds, and more about the subsidies to the "independant" TV companies.

[HPC001]

Seems far less prevalent among the Asian radio stations, if that makes any odds (in fact they even take time on the air to market their advertising packages to prospective business clients).

Edited January 31, 2010 by HPC001

[frozen_out]

Surprised no one's mentioned the 'join the army/navy/RAF/marines ones'.

How many soldiers in Afghanistan only joined up for the skiing

[pete.hpc]

Surprised no one's mentioned the 'join the army/navy/RAF/marines ones'.

How many soldiers in Afghanistan only joined up for the skiing

The military ones don't bother me so much, they're recruitment ads so they have a valid reason, and they've been around for as long as I can remember.

What bothers me is the constant p*ssing away of taxpayer money on lavish adverts and infomercials for government services. These adverts are a constant reminder of how bloated and wasteful the state is.

[Selling up]

I find the one showing a dog drowning due to climate change followed by a little girl smiling as she dutifully switches off a single electric light to be utterly rage inducing.

Because:

Either it is true that climate change is likely to drown dogs (and entire towns) or it is not.

If it is untrue, the advert is a lie.

If it is true, the advert is pointless: we need to be doing far more than switching off the odd light.

It is no good to postulate an apocalyptic threat, and then to propose piddling little preventative measures which will make no difference.

Edited January 31, 2010 by Selling up

[Authoritarian]

Great post Mike, but you forgot the Food Standards Agencies' info-posters instructing us not to waste food.

I don't watch T.V much so I was shocked when I went back to my mums over xmas to find how many gov't ads now congest the airwaves. With those on the independent channels and the BBC on the others it amounts to a very subtle form of public brainwashing through state control of the media.

FWIW I don't think its intentionally sinister, its a reflection of public agencies' view of their role in wider society. We've politicised actions that were once seen as an individual's concern, like smoking, binge drinking and obesity etc so the result is a government led solution to tackle these 'social' issues.

Its mostly an ideological problem imo.

Edited January 31, 2010 by chefdave

[Concrete Jungle]

The one over Christmas showing a man fighting with a giant turkey in his house. I think it was trying to tell Labour voters thick chavs how to defrost and cook a turkey.

[Mr Bigglesworth]

Look, if you lot have got such a problem with these adverts maybe you should talk to frank.

[Mikhail Liebenstein]

I have previously written on HPC about the increase in Government Advertising. Last time I was suspicious it was being used to prop up the advertising sector, this time however I am sure that its being used to prop up the Government, aka the Labour Party prior to an election.

Just thinking about the currently list of Government Ads on commerical radio, I have the following and please add to my list:

1) Questions about child maintenance

2) Tax Credits

3) DVLA don't forget to tax your car.

4) TV licesning

5) Clamydia

6) Loft insulation

7) Carbon Trust

8) Binge drinking - Robocop type hero

9) Swine flu jabs

10) Direct Gov

11) Self assessment

12) Maths skills....back to school

13) Join the armed forces

14) Mortgage support - let's keep you in your home

15) Boiler scrappage

16) Tell us if your circumstances change

17) Become a teacher

18) Become a volunteer/work for free

19) Road Accident, dead children

19) Drugs talk with Frank

20) Foods Standard Agency

21) How to cook a turkey (before Xmas)

22) Illegal foreign workers

23) Climate change - dog

24) Visit Wales.

25) Visit Scotland.

26) Visit London.

27) Visit Yorkshire.

28) VIsit North East England

There was a report in the Telegraph about 6 months ago, but I expect these figures are now out of date and the level of adverts has increased.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/5872163/Propaganda-claims-after-Government-advertising-and-marketing-spend-jumps-50-per-cent-in-a-year.html

Frankly all these Government adverts make me want to vomit. I feel a huge sense of anger every time the Government informs it captive voters that they can claim this or claim that or remind me to pay my tax.

I'd slash benefits to zero for all but the overs 70s and the most incapactated, at least they'd then have an incentive to work.

Edited January 31, 2010 by mikelivingstone

[Guest absolutezero]

"I'd slash benefits to zero for all but the overs 70s and the most incapactated, at least they'd then have an incentive to work."

Or burgle your house and bash your granny over the head for her purse.