please empty your brain below
Marketing messages don't have to be accurate to be effective. This campaign seems to have been extremely effective because you've noticed and talked about it.

The £350m a week Brexit bus slogan was false but effective.

More prosaically, my dad used to have a problem with junk mail leaflets so he put a sign on the door which said "All junk mail to this address is instantly binned without being read" and had no effect on the volume of mail. I told him to replace with a snappier "No junk mail" but he wouldn't because his original was more factually accurate.

Eric | 26.02.21 - 7:35 a.m. | #

Hmmm - I’m not sure I agree with you on this one. I think it’s reasonable to assume that “every” in this context refers to places in which it is required. Many words cease to have meaning if applied too literally. And if we accept that “every” covered face doesn’t include you in your kitchen, but does include people in shops, regardless of whether they are infected, then I think it’s true that every covered face makes a difference - not directly to prevent infection, but by building a wider culture of compliance which indirectly reduces infection by encouraging others.

Thomas Ableman | Homepage | 26.02.21 - 7:36 a.m. | #

Advertising is like poetry: if you are looking for an instruction manual you'll be disappointed.

Tony Woolf | 26.02.21 - 7:53 a.m. | #

For me it is every window closed and sealed right now as I get hay fever only when trees are in blossom. As I live alone no risk of cross infection

John | 26.02.21 - 8:10 a.m. | #

Sorry, not a fan of this government at all, but these seem to be good public information messages.

Jonathan | 26.02.21 - 8:14 a.m. | #

A longer established offender is TfL’s “to us, every journey matters” – when they’re at best indifferent to all those journeys that can only practically be made by van or car, seeking to raise even more revenue from them rather than serve them.

Phil SW11 | 26.02.21 - 8:17 a.m. | #

.......and your suggested snappy message is what?

And what harm will be done if people do open windows, wash their hands etc?

Brian | 26.02.21 - 8:18 a.m. | #

These messages use the continuous present tense "is making" which implies that there is no need for any additional action of the type described. So if you're not doing something, don't start now.

Maybe the ads mean "makes" or "will make", but at face value they don't say so. Or else I don't understand ad-man English.

Ian | 26.02.21 - 8:23 a.m. | #

Donating money 'is helping'.

Donating money 'could help'.

Ones a statement, ones a suggestion, another vote for the government wording.

Still Anon | 26.02.21 - 8:27 a.m. | #

Thanks for the thoughts DG. Not sure I agree with your last paragraph but at least the new set are a lot better than the awful 'look me in the face' series. Nice frosty morning here and the heating at full pitch so every window firmly shut.

davews | Homepage | 26.02.21 - 8:31 a.m. | #

BOLX should be accepted mainstream in OED

Scrumpy | 26.02.21 - 8:34 a.m. | #

No sceptic cockwomble would agree with the last paragraph, obv.

Mike | 26.02.21 - 8:42 a.m. | #

Totally agree with you, DG.
Some dim witted marketing "executive" (there's another greatly misused word...) has just thrown this together without any of the thought you have put into it. And any reasonably intelligent person would put into it. But, hey, it get's the government tick, and brings in the £££s.

Chris Lafosse | 26.02.21 - 8:46 a.m. | #

Agree that there is an issue with emphasis and simplicity in these messages, but don't think they qualify as Bolx. For pure Bolx you just need to observe any Minister of the Crown speaking in the media.

Frank F | 26.02.21 - 8:54 a.m. | #

...and that, Frank, is a generalisation just as bad as the adverts themselves.

diamond geezer | Homepage | 26.02.21 - 8:55 a.m. | #

I’m with you DG. Truth matters. All those half truths tend to distract people from what’s important - wearing a mask if you have to be with other people and providing safe quarantine for people who’ve got it.

RogerB | 26.02.21 - 8:57 a.m. | #

Every open window increases the chance of someone else seeing you've left your window open and therefore becoming more aware of the importance of ventilation in reducing transmissions rates, encouraging them to open a window in turn. At least some of these open windows will be effective in reducing transmission.

It's a more sophisticated hypothesis than the one you've given in your post, as it takes human psychology and social influence into account. However, the analysis is just as credible as the one you've provided, so it's short sighted of you to dismiss the slogans in this way you have done. You may not consider yourself anti-science, but you are perhaps being anti-social science.

James | 26.02.21 - 8:59 a.m. | #

I'd like to join the minority (apparently) agreeing with DG's final paragraph. And I'm fed up with arseholes who think that social distancing is for wimps.

Brian | 26.02.21 - 9:10 a.m. | #

Every breath you take. Every move you make. Every bond you break. Every step you take. I'll be watching you

Mikey C | 26.02.21 - 9:30 a.m. | #

Language evolved so that creature 1 could affect the behaviour of creature 2 in some way favourable to creature 1. It did not evolve to make factually accurate statements. Treating things like these as statements, whose truth value could be evaluated, is a category mistake.

Malcolm of Kent | 26.02.21 - 9:39 a.m. | #

Definitely bolx but far better than those awful ‘Look them in the eye’ billboards.

JDS | 26.02.21 - 9:46 a.m. | #

Every open window also increases the risk of burglary.

Chris | 26.02.21 - 9:50 a.m. | #

“You are Mr Logic from Viz comic, and I claim my £5”.

Baldassaro | 26.02.21 - 9:51 a.m. | #

I subscribe to the notion that the 'Every...' serves as a hook to engage the reader that need not be literally true. Once you have the attention of the reader the small print explains further. In annoying you, the ad had proved its effectiveness in grabbing your attention.

Brightside | 26.02.21 - 9:56 a.m. | #

You’re getting quite exercised there. Perhaps it would be better to take a deep breath and consider the words of Mrs Jones who, when asked about her Bert’s lumbago, replied “you mustn’t grumble”...

Philip | 26.02.21 - 9:59 a.m. | #

I don't mind these ones as the underlying message is fair enough, and they're far better than the previous ones that tried to make me feel guilty for just leaving the house.

The ones that do annoy me are on motorway dot matrix displays which I see on the way to helping out my elderly mother-in-law (perfectly legal as she's in our bubble and can't manage things herself) but we're exhorted to STAY HOME SAVE LIVES. Only ever seen by people who have already left home so either incorrect as they're allowed to or too late if they shouldn't have done. The old IS YOUR JOURNEY REALLY NECESSARY might have been better.

Andrew S | 26.02.21 - 10:07 a.m. | #

A great friend of the English, Talleyrand, said that "everything that is excessive is insignificant", and that applies to propaganda of course.

Interestingly, those messages assume that the topic is completely mastered by the audience, since apart from injunctions, the factual information about why or to what it makes a difference is in smaller characters, hence less imporant.

"Let's keep going" as a message is very important (as a govt goal). There is no end in sight, no goal , no benchmarks. Just continuation of the same for reason unimportant (again, the why is not highlighted).

intreader | 26.02.21 - 10:31 a.m. | #

Am I the only one of your readers who had no idea of this ad campaign before now?
Stay home and keep the TV off is my way of dealing with it.

Cornish Cockney | 26.02.21 - 10:47 a.m. | #

And they started this campaign the very day the government (i.e.) SAGE downgraded the Covid threat from 5 to 4. Only 12 weeks before someone can visit your house! No end in sight indeed.

Kim | 26.02.21 - 11:07 a.m. | #

I agree that hyperbole undermines the message, but I'm guessing these ads aren't directed at overanalytical pedants like me. They're aimed at passing motorists and don't have the time for subtleties.

On the plus side, they are reinforcing positive messages, rather than bashing people over the head with negative ones, and making people feel as if they have some agency, which is a good move.

I can't believe I just defended the govt there.

Sarah | Homepage | 26.02.21 - 12:16 p.m. | #

It's an advertising slogan. It needs to be short and simple. Introducing conditionality into it would make the viewer confused, switch off or decide that they needn't adopt the behaviour(s) because "we don't ...." whatever it might be.

You are pedantically right but the end justifies the technically inaccurate means.

David | 26.02.21 - 2:43 p.m. | #

Boris and the government have been very clever at putting the blame for the present situation on the public hence the campaigns to frighten us into following their strictures. What we need to realize is that they messed up but need someone else to blame. Hence these ads

Tones | 26.02.21 - 3:15 p.m. | #

Is it only a stain on modern society, though? I'm pretty sure misleading ads have been around for a long time.

Rhett O'Rical | 26.02.21 - 5:03 p.m. | #

You are overlooking one fact: almost no-one is as bright as you, therefore most people won't even notice, let alone care. The general 'intelligence' (in the original sense of the word) of the general population is undoubtedly dumbing down as the consumption of social media and online junk increases.

I also disagree about open windows, but for another reason: where people are living in very close proximity to each other, or where passers-by walk past open windows, the virus could very easily be spreading. If you can smell your neighbours smoke, you can be breathing their virus.

Blue Witch | Homepage | 27.02.21 - 10:48 a.m. | #

The kids at my sister's school in northern Germany have to wear their coats in class as the windows have been flung wide all winter.
They've been told to bring blankets ~ just not cashmere ones.

Erste world problems.

JP | 27.02.21 - 11:59 p.m. | #

Advice, Guidance & Guidelines are just that. You are free to follow or ignore it as you want. The only important thing is the letter of the law as per the current Statutory Instrument for Tier 4 which legally expires on 31st March 2021 unless extended. Permitted Activities are legal at any time, Exercise is a permitted activity.
Going to a shop that is permitted to remain open is a permitted activity as is collecting a Click & Collect purchase from a serving hatch or screened off doorway. There are no restrictions of frequency or distances allowed for a permitted activity despite what the government tells you in their daily lies and constantly repeated by the MetPol and BBC.

Andrew Jarman | 28.02.21 - 7:53 p.m. | #











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