Brands comment

PR that could take us places

Blink and there's another one - it feels like there isn't anywhere that brands can't slap their logos, which is OK depending on who's doing the slapping.

Take the station platform of one Sussex town as an example. "Redhill: home of Specsavers Opticians", rail users are proudly told. It's a wonder that trains travelling on this Brighton-to-London line ever make it given the number of pilgrims no doubt clamouring across the tracks to reach this most special of places.

Specsavers has obviously spent good money (hopefully none of the good money it receives from my monthly direct debit) to fund this "advertising statement" and ultimately it's helpful to know that the bottom of the barrel has officially been scraped. Do the tourists whose eye this sign catches think it's a display of the famous English humour they've heard about?

There's endless discussion about whether the trade needs an advertising or PR campaign to raise its profile and the answer has to be yes, if only to give the public something genuinely interesting to talk about and to be proud of.

The sticking point - apart from who's paying - is definitions. How do you encapsulate the essence of the pub in

just a few words, or a single image?

While the industry pulls up a chair and settles down to another round of procrastination, wouldn't it be great to quietly ease the rug from underneath the feet of other sectors by snapping up some of those station signs?

"St Albans: home of the Campaign for Real Ale" or "Dorking: where you can visit Denbies, England's largest vineyard".

It might not placate the anti-alcohol lobby, but it's in much better taste than Redhill's nauseatingly bland "Number one for eye tests" any day.

And who knows, it might inspire some to get off the train at these places next time, or to find out more, putting the focus on a trade that really needs and deserves it.