Rebranding a public service--police, camera, action: as war brews between the BBC, the Home Office and M&C Saatchi about the Police's controversial `Could You' adverts, Morag Cuddeford Jones looks at the branding struggles facing public services. (News Analysis).

Brand Strategy, September, 2002 by Morag Cuddeford Jones

The BBC has claimed that the high profile, multi-million pound Police `Could You?' advertising, featuring a number of famous faces in talking heads pieces, has flopped. This criticism of the 12m [pounds sterling] ad campaign by M&C Saatchi has caused a war of words between the corporation and the ad agency, with the Home Office--responsible for commissioning the ad--receiving some flack in the process.

The advertising's dual aims were to increase Police recruitment in line with government targets and to foster warmer feelings towards a force that has been recently hit with charges of institutionalised racism, ineffectiveness and bureaucracy.

The BBC's analysis concentrates on the former, claiming that of the 43 forces in England and Wales, only 13 could...