Britain’s advertising industry has effectively been nationalised

Has the advertising industry been nationalised? It certainly looks that way. The run-up to Christmas is usually the time for UK advertisers to spend big. But not this year.

While the John Lewis Christmas ad has been greeted with some fanfare, this is the exception, rather than the rule in 2020. Companies whose businesses have been shuttered and whose customers are locked down see little point in spending money on advertising. In any recession, one of the first things to be cut is the advertising budget.  However, there seems to be one mighty paymaster propping up a lucky few ad agencies: the government.

Walk outside (go on, I dare you) and you’re likely to see one name plastered across phone boxes and on billboards: Public Health England. PHE has increased its splurge on advertising by 5,000 per cent, as it orders people to somehow get active and lose weight, even while we’re cooped up at home.