Why Britain should bring back the Central Office of Information

In that sense, it was a genuine “Ministry of Truth” and held in high regard by anyone who worked in advertising or marketing, particularly by those of us in the ad industry. Far from being stuffy civil servants, COI clients were usually savvy ex-ad people with a great deal of commercial and creative nous. And with the help of some terrific agencies, they did a lot of great work.

The COI was, in effect, the government’s advertising department and its business was highly prized by agencies because it gave them a rare chance to do work that actually mattered.

I’m sure Heinz and Budweiser won’t mind me saying that I wasn’t passionately invested in how many cans of beans or bottles of beer I helped them sell, but working with the COI was different. Over the years, I helped persuade people to drive more safely, to eat more fruit and veg (I came up with the phrase “Five a day”. You’re welcome) and to stop stabbing each other.

So it was a sad day when the COI was disbanded in 2012 in the spirit of “austerity”. Its loss is now so keenly felt that the time has come to bring it back. Instead of government work being channelled through one experienced, professional and creatively literate department, it’s now all over the place. Literally. Each government department now handles its own advertising and those responsible for it really are stuffy civil servants.

Trouble is, there isn’t much government advertising any more and that’s quite worrying. Previous governments, through the COI, would try to persuade us to change our behaviour through powerful and memorable advertising. This government, instead of employing the art of effective persuasion, go straight to the ban, the tax or the punishment.

Their approach to current drinking and driving laws are a perfect illustration. This was where COI were most successful. By powerfully dramatizing the dangers of drinking and driving, the COI contributed in no small way to the UK having the safest roads in Europe.

And yet what are the government now doing? Making drinking and driving laws even more stringent without bothering to explain why.

The COI’s firm belief was that if you present people good reasons to change their behaviour, they usually will. Politicians are constantly bemoaning societal problems such as drug use, vape use, and the isolating over-use of social media but these are exactly the kind of issues that the COI would have tackled with intelligence and creativity.

This was possible principally because their people had no time for party politics. They were robustly independent and hilariously scathing about Labour or Tory administrations alike. The only worry is that the current government wouldn’t like that and might try to turn the COI into an Orwellian instrument of statist propaganda. But as long as they stuck to non-partisan subjects like safer sex, safer driving and saving energy, the nation would benefit.

To encourage healthier eating habits, for example, the COI – with the help of Saatchi & Saatchi – advised us to “Eat a little less, live a little longer”. Modesty forbids me from boasting about the success of “Have you had your five a day?” but this is the kind of work the government should be doing.

If Keir & Co were concerned about improving our health rather than picking our pockets, they'd steer us away from the cakes towards the cauliflower but no, they prefer the smash & grab of a “sugar tax”.

With any luck, the next government will bring back the COI to persuade rather than punish us into replacing bad habits with good ones.

Then they could say, “See?”

To which those north of Watford could reply, “Oh, aye!”

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