It’s all about perception-that’s reality

This week an exchange with a client took place which gave pause for thought. LHR was asked to draft a new recruitment ad for them. We took advantage of a special space deal in a newspaper and drafted something relevant and attractive.

Let’s say the deal was $1000. The client liked the ad we had done. Then someone in the company said that the attractive ad would give the wrong impression in an economic downturn. They instructed LHR to run the ad outside the special arrangement and to use an all-type ad of a smaller size to the one drafted.

The smaller ad, outside the special deal actually cost more-say $1100. The client spent more, got a less appealing ad because of a fear of public perception. How much of what we do is now so geared by fear to political correctness that it actually interfers with the communication process and gets in the way of a better result?

Geoff Holt