Jun 2008 30

The Local Government Association: No charm, just offensive1

The Local Government Association – paid for by you and me through local councils’ membership subs – have today launched one of the most ill-advised and inappropriate advertising campaigns since Gerald Ratner (who described his own jewellery firm’s produce as "crap"). Here are two of their deligthful offerings, soon to be adorning a bus stop near you:

Lga_poster_dog_2Lga_poster_vomit_2 

Apparently stung into this misguided action by our Council Spending Uncovered campaign, the LGA bills this as being intended to "repair [councils'] image problem". As that image is at least in part one of hectoring bodies that spend hundreds of millions of pounds on pointless advertising, this may not be the best way to go about it.

At the core of the campaign is a refusal on the part of councils to recognise that, in doubling council tax in a decade but cutting back or standing still with essential services, they have let people down. The campaign seems to be based on a failure to consider themselves as being at fault, but instead assuming people are too stupid to appreciate that their council are actually doing a great job. As an advertising drive, it is wasteful, offensive and counterproductive.

I took part in a discussion about this campaign last night on BBC Radio 5 Live. Amazingly, the LGA didn’t have a press officer available to give the producer information about the campaign (they had to ring me to ask if I knew more about how many posters were being published), or an official spokesman to go on national radio to promote or even defend it. Instead, the discussion was between me and the very decent Cllr Patrick Karney of Manchester City Council, who seemed quite embarassed at this campaign being prosecuted on his behalf. He rightly pointed out that talk, spin and glossy posters are neither what people want or an effective way to change perceptions of local government. The only way to do that, he said, was action. If only the LGA would listen.

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  • Hardeep_Singh

    There you have it, local government vision of both the world and of itself. There is little one can do to change the course of such a stubborn vessel. Similiar to a police siege situation when you ‘cannot get through’ it time to begin cutting the supply so that you win over their attention. However whatever the state of play we cannot afford to feed this entity further, it’s clearly not delivering nor does it seem capable of doing so.
    Perhaps the pictures should have been of a elderly couple let down by the local council/authority time and time again. Maybe the decent law abiding family afraid for their children’s road safety thanks to the council lack of action. Another could have been the self employed courier van delivery guy who now gets hit with regular parking fines and can barely keep his head above the waterline.
    Besides I don’t have a dog and no I don’t make an arse of myself every Friday and Saturday night so what exactly is it that my council does for me now? It’s reflective of their mentality to think dog fouling and boozy revellers are what makes up mainstream society.