London’s Evening Standard says sorry for… being… erm… a bit rubbish
The London Evening Standard launched an advertising campaign this week to say sorry to its readers for being complacent, negative, predictable, for losing touch and for taking readers for granted.
Brave, stupid, hmmm, still not sure about this one. Here’s some of the campaign.
The chairman of ad agency Fallon, Laurence Green, who helped resurrect Skoda’s dodgy reputation a few years back, believes it is a “massive roll of the dice”:
“The first rule of advertising is to get noticed and I think this campaign will. It is an interesting strategy given apologies are normally a more private dialogue in editorial. However, I think the truth is the Evening Standard is between a rock and a hard place of threats to its business [model] so the campaign is either desperation or reckless ambition.
“The worst thing they could have done is something invisible. It is a massive role of the dice, but admirable. The question will be on follow-through. They have raised expectations on what comes next, which means pressure on providing a great product.”
Guardian blogger and Evening Standard columnist Roy Greenslade has his say here.
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