Stop Shouting At Me

I’ve been at the ‘puter solid for the last few days, tweaking the CV yet again, sending spec emails and filling in application forms.

In doing so I’ve been listening to Absolute Radio, it’s actually pretty good for someone of my age, plenty of 80’s and 90’s (Although they do seem to have a love affair with the dreadful Lily Allen and the Amy Winehouse version of ‘Valerie’ but you can go make a cup of tea then.)

I happened to notice a certain theme recurring during the advert breaks, so I decided to keep a note.

During every advert break one or often times two, of the following were ‘advertised’.

Job Centre Plus - (DWP)
Anti Smoking - (NHS)
Hepatitis C Warning – (NHS)
Replacing Paper Driving Licence (DVLA)
Driving without insurance - (DVLA, DoT, and I’m sure HMRC)
The Carbon Trust - (Fake Charity)
The Energy Saving Trust - (Fake Charity)
Anti-Speeding – (DoT, HSE)

All day, for the whole day. every 20-25 minutes

In the end I got fed up with this relentless hectoring, I started up iTunes and put it on shuffle.

So nice work HMG , you just cost Absolute Radio a listener.

However it’s only going to get worse, it now seems that the Government is to become the UK’s largest advertiser.

It increased spend by 20% last year to £178 mio pounds, fuck knows how much they are spending this year, but if my (ahem) survey is any indication, it’s a shed load.

Edit: Fido at The Lone Voice has some thoughts on the TV versions

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