Comments on: QIT#7 Is “Sorry” the right word?

By: Pete

Pete — Tue, 19 May 2009 18:25:10 +0000

(A week later)

Allowing for the fact that I dislike advertising generally and its for a paper I don’t read in a city I don’t live in so it’s not aimed at me and probably wouldn’t be aimed at me if I was living in that city…

I think the campaign is interesting. It treats the readers as adults who have a choice as to where they get their news (the Standard only has a monopoly in print, freesheets excluded) and shows some humility. Newspapers are usually so paranoid about not being seen to be wrong about something that they never say sorry unless they really really have to (and even then it’s often qualified into meaninglessness) so this is grabs the attention.

As for the employees of the Standard… Well, they used to work for Associated Press. In my opinion a lot of them should have said sorry a long time ago.

By: Cool stuff - May 11, 2009 — Danny Whatmough.com

Cool stuff - May 11, 2009 — Danny Whatmough.com — Mon, 11 May 2009 20:03:49 +0000

[...] QIT#7 Is “Sorry” the right word? [...]

By: Joanna

Joanna — Mon, 11 May 2009 19:19:02 +0000

@Pete So you’re cool with the advertising? It doesn’t matter how much I sympathise with what it’s trying to do, it just doesn’t sit right with me.

By: Pete Ashton

Pete Ashton — Mon, 11 May 2009 18:54:49 +0000

@Joanna That Guardian interview is fascinating. I didn’t realise the Standard was no long part of the Mail stable. Makes perfect sense now. Clean slate.

By: Pete Ashton

Pete Ashton — Mon, 11 May 2009 18:33:38 +0000

Typo in my comment:

little problem = litter problem

By: Joanna

Joanna — Mon, 11 May 2009 17:50:29 +0000

@dp I'm afraid it is a genuine campaign, explained here by Geordie Greig. But, as Rachel says, it is part one of a two-parter. I haven't seen any of the "Promise" adverts yet.

By: dp

dp — Mon, 11 May 2009 17:31:30 +0000

I saw a few of these and took them as a facetious commentary on current events and behaviours. Nothing to do with the Standard itself. Have I read incorrectly? Or should I say, ‘Sorry’?

By: Pete Ashton

Pete Ashton — Mon, 11 May 2009 15:16:00 +0000

This is interesting to me because the main criticism I’ve seen of the plague of free papers in London these days is not that they’re crap or a little problem (though these are issues) but that they seem to actively hate London. Since the Standard and Metro are from the Mail stable (where hate is good) I’m intrigued to see how this plays out. Has their marketing research picked up on this?

As to your point, yes, actions are more important than advertising slogans.

By: Rachel

Rachel — Mon, 11 May 2009 12:37:51 +0000

It was annoying that there was only a Sorry without a list of things they were going to do to change that. But all the Sorry ads have no gone, replaced with ‘Promise’ ads, which should be explained in the paper tonight, I guess. Well, they’ve giving it away tonight, so guessing there’ll be some explanation