Brand personalities
October 13th, 2008 by Jon Clements 
As I write, the House of Lords is debating the 42-day detention amendment to the Goverment’s counter-terrorism bill, which - if passed - would increase from 28 to 42 days the amount of time a terrorist suspect could be held without charge.
To support opposition to the bill, campaign group Liberty has orchestrated 42 UK writers to publish work tackling the implications of the legislation head on, with the results posted on a special section of Liberty’s website.
The Liberty campaign is a brilliant piece of PR: securing 42 high profile writers to contribute their own words on the subject; designing the web site as a 42-day calendar and gaining press coverage such as that in yesterday’s Observer (half an early news page), aimed at precisely the left-leaning libertarian reader who is more likely to rattle his MP’s cage on the matter.
But the key element here is the writers. Whether or not they could be deemed “celebrities”, their profile raises that of the campaign.
Choosing the right, high profile people to associate with your campaign is a sticky business: finding someone who has sufficient profile and resonance with your chosen audience and who will reflect the brand values of your product or cause. Some choices are clear cut in their brilliance while others seem to work in spite of themselves. 1960’s model and icon, Twiggy’s association with M&S just works. Ironically, so does M&S and Mylene Klass, despite the latter being not really a model nor a pop star, but somehow right for the brand.
Here is a selection of brands that had an association with a star, with a suitable clip to refresh your memory. Can you name the star before clicking on the brand? For those readers under 30, you might need to ask a grown up.
Curly Wurly; Campari; Cinzano Bianco; Boddingtons; Memorex; Fosters; Teach your kids to swim (public information film); Olympus Trip; National Westminster Bank
Tags: 42-day detention campaign, Brands, celebrities, Liberty, M&S, Mylene Klass, PR, The Observer, Twiggy
October 13th, 2008 at 3:33 pm
This campaign has leveraged new media to organise and rally together the libertarian left. Sunny Hundal, who I’ve written about before http://pr-media-blog.co.uk/tag/nadine-dorries/
has been influential in getting bloggers behind it, getting sign-ups to an online petition and helping provide ’super-influencers’ to pen a letter to the editor of the Guardian.
October 14th, 2008 at 11:10 am
Whoa, even I wouldn’t want to diss my record by calling myself a libertarian! liberal, in a left-wing sense, yes