The Economist‘s bold, white-on-red poster campaign has run for years. It started, if I remember rightly, by playing on readers’ insecurity—its message was that digesting The Economist was the best way to avoid dinner party embarrassment—a subscription would ensure that you were always informed of Important Matters.
Currently their approach must be based on flattery. I saw one at Stevenage(?) train station yesterday evening that said something like:
“When someone mentions Jordan, you immediately think of a Middle Eastern country with a 2.5% growth rate.
The Economist”
Should I feel smug or out-of-touch that I had to ponder for five minutes before I could think of what other Jordan the ad could possibly be referring to?
Conversely, some vodka manufacturer (Smirnoff, I think – apologies to their lawyers if I’m wrong) had to withdraw an ad that read “I thought the Kama Sutra was an Indian restaurant until I discovered Smirnoff” after market research revealed that a clear majority of people genuinely did think that!
The ad is obviously too subtle for people likely to read the economist. As a regular Economist reader I am only vaguely aware that the majority of the population immediately thinks of large breasts when faced with the word Jordan.
I’m sure there must be some who read both the magazine and also the Sun, but I’m sure they are a minority.
Surely this is the only other Jordan.
The anatomical part to think of when thinking of Jordan is missing teeth.
If you didn’t know who Jordan was and you worked for the agency that produced this poster, you’d probably be fired for being out of touch. Now that’s irony.
Killer Fact: according to the latest TGI survey (not online), 41,000 people in the UK read both the Economist and the Sun! That’s 12.4% of the Economist’s UK readership, and 0.5% of the Sun’s.
Until I accidentally glanced at a copy of the Sun a few years ago, I’d blithely assumed from the references to ‘Jordan’ in a context that suggested the name of someone of the female persuasion that some kind of punk revival was in the offing. But it seems not.
What is this “punk” of which you speak?
My previous post should have included a link to Joe Jordan the 70s footballer famous for missing teeth.
There is also the Prefab Sprout album “Jordan the Comeback”.
Jordan, of Michael Brooke’s comment, appeared in Derek Jarman’s film Jubilee.
So now you know.
Just reread the previous post and realised I read it wrong.
“What is this ‘punk’ of which you speak”, indeed.”
I seem to recall a Not The Nine O’Clock news sketch about out of touch judges that covers, and this shows its age, new things like digital watches, video recorders and blow up dolls. Of the first two the judge was unaware.
I’ll get my coat.