"Want respect? Use a condom" campaign included a specially-made drama series, called "Thmbnls" which cost £250,000.And when it was discovered and challenged by the Taxpayers’ Alliance, what was their answer?
But only 5,576 mobile phone users signed up for the videos, which meant it cost £45 per subscriber when set against the cost of the film.
Incredibly, it was ‘Hey, we didn’t even expect to get that many downloads!’:
The government said the campaign was a success and the number of subscribers had exceeded its own targets.So, they actually budgeted for it to cost more per user than £45...?
Outstanding...
Susie Squire from the Taxpayers' Alliance said: "Too often the government engages with gimmicky marketing and gimmicky advertising because they think they are going to reach a new audience.Well, sure. In the real world.
"I think when it comes to spending taxpayers' money, particularly on healthcare issues, they should be going for the most effective approach, not the most fashionable."
In the crazy world of government waste, anything goes!
5 comments:
Ian Hislop made the point on the latest HIGNFY that after the MP's expenses what will be shocking is the sheer hugeness of government waste, the cost running into billions, all on things like this and failed IT projects, regional assemblies, quangos generally etc etc.
I don't think anyone will really comprehend the scale.
Labour people just don't seem to understand the value of anything.
They know costs and all of the other tractor production statistical information.
But for all their professed status as the party that is 'a moral crusade', by far the worst expenses issues have been by Labour people.
No understanding of values on morality.
No understanding of the value of spending the nations wealth.
No understanding of the value of our constitutional heritage.
'The government said the campaign was a success' And so it was - it successfully made the transition from focus group to market, giving gainful media-based employment to hundreds of functionaries.
And it showed that the government is in touch with 'yungpeeple', although I suspect most of the 5,576 viewers tuned in for a laugh, making the whole thing, as the adverts say, 'priceless'.
These people need some lit mtchstcks under their thmbnls.
"..after the MP's expenses what will be shocking is the sheer hugeness of government waste.."
Oh, yes. This may be a piddling amount (to government) but multiply it by the number of departments churning out this sort of rubbish on a daily scale, and it's a lot worse than anyone thinks.
"They know costs and all of the other tractor production statistical information."
At least in tractor production, you had a measurable unit of success - an honest-to-god tractor. This, though..?
Smoke and mirrors...
"..I suspect most of the 5,576 viewers tuned in for a laugh.."
Indeed. If only they'd found a way to charge for Gordon's bizarre YouTube appearance, we might have gone at least a small way towards building up our gold reserves again.
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