Cop a load of these slogans

Mar 6 2011 by Sunday Sun

OH, how I laughed at the waste of money spent on Cumbria Police’s new slogan.

“Safer, Stronger Cumbria” is hardly groundbreaking is it? And it really does state the obvious.

Doesn’t every police force aspire to make the area it covers safer? As for stronger, I’m not entirely sure what the force means. Safer, Sturdier Cumbria or Safer, Solid Cumbria would have meant exactly the same thing and I made that up in the space of three seconds while picking up my cup of tea and putting it down again.

So why did it cost £11,000 to come up with such a pointless slogan?

Why didn’t the force ask every employee to come up with their own ideas? No doubt someone would have dreamt up something just as effective or, should I say, ineffective. Mind you, it’s nothing compared to the slogan flaunted around by Sussex Police. “Serving Sussex” is its marketing tool. Well I hope it’s not serving Devon & Cornwall or else we might have a problem.

Meanwhile, Avon & Somerset Police and Cheshire Police appear to have employed the same marketing team.

One’s slogan is “Working Together to Make the Communities of Avon & Somerset Feel Safe and Be Safe”. The other is “Be Safe, Feel Safe”. So imaginative and so utterly pointless.

When I think about it I’m not sure many advertising slogans really work.

“Compare the Meerkat” is a runaway success, and this slogan of the eighties also helped sell chocolate bars by the truck load: “A Mars a Day Helps You Work Rest and Play”.

Less memorable is Pantene’s “For Hair So Healthy It Shines”. Well, of course, it probably does if it has just been washed. And finally what about TV chat show legend Sir Michael Parkinson’s advert for life insurance. “Win a free Parker pen just by enquiring”, he says.

Thanks Michael, I’ve got plenty of pens at home.

Actually, I wonder if Cumbria Police have their own pens advertising “Safer, Stronger Cumbria”?

If the force has spent money on that too, then someone really should be arrested.