‘Get Ready’ Brexit propaganda campaign biggest since WW2

Robert Woodward – TruePublica: Shaking the money tree is something the new Conservative government are getting good at as another £100m of taxpayers money gets burned over Brexit.

It appears the government has abandoned Dominic Cummings ‘take back control’ slogan and gone with something entirely new of his. Now everyone is advised to ‘Get Ready’ – having lost control.

 

According to The Times, Michael Gove, who has said that no-deal will cause some ‘bumps in the road,’ has signed off the campaign which will be launched Monday.

It will kick off with a billboard campaign and a new government website, to alert the public and businesses to the Brexit deadline date of October 31st, when the UK could leave the EU without a deal (just in case they had not heard about it).

It will be followed by radio and television adverts, and even government officials using t-shirts and mugs with the message on. Then there will be the blast of millions of micro-ads on social media. So Get Ready for that.

Last month it was reported that this will be the biggest government advertising campaign since the Second World War.

It’s all very reminiscent of Margaret Thatcher’s “Protect and Survive” pamphlet that advised people on the safest way to protect themselves after a nuclear attack in the midst of the Cold War. It’s front page warned – “Read this booklet with care. Your life and the lives of your family may depend upon it.” A child was depicted lying in a ditch covering himself with a school blazer and shielding himself from a thermonuclear attack. It’s as if the government might be wondering themselves just how bad a no-deal Brexit could be.

According to an unnamed source who told slavishly pro-Brexit newspaper The Sun: “This is all part of sensible planning for the unlikely event of the EU refusing to offer a new deal. He [Boris Johnson] believes there is nothing to fear from leaving without a deal – but it would be nothing short of folly if we failed to keep the public fully informed.”

A Treasury source added: “I can’t imagine there has been a bigger ‘comms’ campaign than this since the War. It is a pretty huge thing for a ‘comms’ campaign.”

 

(Main Image – Advice from the ‘Protect and Survive’ pamphlet which advised ‘Lie flat (in a ditch)’ and cover exposed skin’ – pretty much the same as the latest government campaign ‘Get Ready’ over a no-deal Brexit. Illustration: Crown copyright.)

 

 

---