... Labour U-Turning Over Adland Budgets

So quite some time ago David Cameron started harking on about a Tory win meaning a cut in government advertising budgets…. He claimed this would lead to a two year freeze in council tax bills. A promise they most definitely wouldn’t be able to deliver on, regarded as pretty much unworkable by Adland.


Now the Labour Treasury, in its attempt to reduced government spend, is planning to cut the advertising budget too. Boo.


At the Labour party conference, Gordon Brown pledged that, to start, the Dept of Health’s comms budget would be cut in order to help fund free personal care for 350,000 OAPs in their homes. Basically, in their attempts to hang on in for a 4th term, Labour are going to be making commitments to various causes left, right and centre, so they have to start saving money elsewhere, and their advertising/marketing comms seem to be the area that will be hit significantly. There’s no clue what areas will be hit the most but obviously the DoH has suffered the first blow publicly during LabCon.


Apparently the COI’s ad spend rose 35% to £211million in the last financial year, so government advertising is obviously a key area where the treasury will try and make savings… though the topics covered by the gov advertising coming- obesity, sexual health etc- are surely important issues that still need to be tackled, and remain areas of public interest?


A Labour source told ‘Campaign' mag: "We have to look at everything. Nobody wants to stop vital campaigns on matters of public health and safety but some others may have to be a lower priority in future."

Gonna be keeping an eye on this one in the run up to the next budget!