Easy! Brexit, obvs. With MPs about to vote on Prime Minister Theresa May’s controversial deal for Britain leaving the European Union (EU), ad-land has gone into overdrive.
In a June 2016 referendum, Britain voted by 52% to 48% to leave the EU, and all hell broke loose. Debate continues to rage among all sectors, and advertising has much at stake as any.
Here are a couple of darkly humorous, very different ads amid the mayhem that caught our eye.
This shocking – literally – new ad is by Double-Check, a group of friends in the British creative industry who are mooting a second referendum. “Only a second referendum can give us the opportunity to make that ‘double-check’,” they say. “Some would say – ‘but we had a vote, to vote again would deny democracy’. But to double-check is common sense. We must not let our instinct to double-check an important decision be seen as a denial of democracy.”
Amid rumours of possible delays to the original leaving date of March 29th, 2019, Environment Secretary Michael Gove reportedly said that ‘critics holding out for a better deal were like swingers in their mid-50s waiting for Hollywood star Scarlett Johansson to turn up on a date’.
Talking of Mr Gove, the UK’s commercial radio industry body, Radiocentre, has come up with new audio ads using the voice of actor Oliver Maltman, who played him in a TV series called ‘Brexit: The Uncivil War’. Here’s the 40-second pigeon-related one.
The aim is to show advertisers how to reach mass audiences cost-effectively in uncertain times. “We felt it was important to create a campaign that wasn’t politically charged,” said Radioville, the creative team behind it.
With the general populace simultaneously fatigued, irate and confused about it all, eyes are now on January 15th, when British MPs are due to vote on an exit deal the prime minister struck with the other 27 EU countries late last year.
Uncertain times indeed.
To have your say on this and other ads, visit the ADDS site.
Read next: 4 Finds To Flex Your Creative Muscles
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