It’s been a great and sunny weekend in this Sceptered Isle. Britain has come out (well, at least in this rather Royalist corner of Surrey) in red, white and blue. There’s a frisson of wedding buzz and I even saw several amorous middle-aged couples dry-humping in the evening sun on the grassy banks of the Thames as I enjoyed my first post-marathon run last night. A weekend of BBQs, Zinfandel Rose and wall-to-wall sunshine will do that to our repressed Northern Hemisphere blood.
Imagine how sad it was therefore to find it all come crashing down last night during the ad-break to the Suspicions of Mr. Whicher on ITV. To the unmistakably British melody of ‘The Self Preservation Society’ tune written for the Italian Job, the British TV view was subjected to the latest ‘wood preservation society’ advert for either Cuprinol/Ronseal (so clear I couldn’t remember which one it was), it encouraged people to sign-up to their (turns out it’s Cuprinol) Facebook page and to presumably tell lots of stories about painting and preserving external wood.
This is Britain at its worst. A mind-bogglingly stupid consequence of a creative idea that spun out of that song from The Italian Job. The incentive (there HAS to be an incentive because clearly nobody in their right mind cares that much about external wood preservation) is to win a shed or something. But of course you do benefit it other ways: ergo … tips … (there’s always a market for tips isn’t there? “Try using a brush!” “Consider sealing your wood when it isn’t raining!”) and inspiration (“Why not use green, instead of brown, or brown instead of green if you prefer!”) and the worryingly vague ‘other updates’ can also be found lurking behind this terrible stock shot of yummy mummy in pink gloves watering her pansies. Presumably they have people hanging on the line for the latest in ICI’s wood-preservation solvent technology.
I hate Facebook participation campaigns so very much now.
EDIT: I have since discovered this ‘idea’ has been around since 2009, and as this post explains even more acerbically, it was pretty lame first time around…
John Gibbard 