From Tunbridge Wells with love

What is that one phrase that makes you think? What is that one phrase that makes you smile? What is that one phrase that makes you stop what you are doing and focus on the person who said it?

I love you.

Think back to the first time you heard that said to you. 

Think about where it was. 

Think about how it made you feel. 

Think about how many times you’ve heard it since.

Thought about it? Good. 

Like how your attention has been nicely diverted whilst reading this blog post? Well the Tunbridge Wells Borough Council has done the same with their road work’s messaging on the A21.

The message is “Someone loves you”.

Now this is supposed to make you drive carefully through the road works so you can return to your loved one/s. However, it completely distracts you from driving. It makes you think about something other than driving. It does the exact opposite of what it was meant to do.

The TWBC has clearly tried to use emotion to force safer driving. But if they had read a bit further into behavioural economics they would have seen that “emotions can act as triggers of other mental states (stored memories, new beliefs, new preferences, and the like)” (Cecchi, 2015). Stored memories is what I am really trying to drive home here (excuse the pun). If you are accessing stored memories you are not focusing on the job in hand. And that job is driving.

Happy to hear your thoughts on this too, so please leave a comment.

Down with strikes, up with advertising

I always love a trip to London Town. Inspiration everywhere, I always manage to come back with something. Yesterday it was mostly wet hair and a broken umbrella but also this little beauty.

I'm a massive fan of TFL advertising. Look at this beautifully simple on system poster on the underground. For me it's a perfect example of what we mean by a single minded big idea in advertising, the one us types constantly search for. For me it ticks every box. One simple idea – the iconic coloured tube line executed a myriad ways to all sorts of people conveying all sorts of messages. Pah to the rain, I’ve got my TFL ads.

Things go better with Coke

It seems that Coke marketers are concerned that mothers do not consider its products when planning family meals (Marketing 11May 2011).

McCann's have created a TV campaign showing a family eating at a table, and when glasses of Coke are poured, animated flowers, rabbits and grass appear.

Now I am a great fan of Coke. I love the brand, I love the bottle and I love the myths and legends. And yes, I CAN tell Coke from Pepsi and, yes please I would prefer to have my Coke from a proper bottle than a can or, God forbid, a dispenser dripping with the last customer's lemonade.
But I am truly horrified that the brand is embarking on a campaign to encourage meal time consumption.

I will fight against onerous legislative restraint on our industry but surely this is playing right into the hands of those who'd argue for tighter controls. Aren't there enough other opportunities for the nation to get its Coke fix?

No-one in their right minds can possibly think it is responsible to encourage consumption of this wonderful drink at mealtimes as a matter of course.

Shame on you McCanns and shame on you Coke.

Image courtesy of Adhistory