UK advertising goes silent in lead-up to Queen Elizabeth's funeral

Up to 1 million people are expected to pour into London on Sept. 19 for the funeral of Queen Elizabeth II, but what these crowds of visitors won’t be seeing is any advertising. Since the Sept. 8 death of the monarch, British advertising has undergone an almost unprecedented blackout, the nearest similarity being the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic when the country went into lockdown. Perhaps the most striking thing is the lack of outdoor ads. Across the capital, many digital screens and billboards have been replaced by tributes to the queen since her death. The biggest outdoor media owners, Clear Channel and JCDecaux, blacked out screens on the day of her death and continued to display tributes in major sites in the run-up to the funeral. On the day of the funeral, all the major media owners will run commemorative content for 24 hours. One of London's most famous sites, Ocean Outdoor’s famous Piccadilly Circus Lights, will run a tribute to the queen. Meanwhile, the LED lighting of the BFI IMAX, a major outdoor site, will turn purple in tribute to the queen on Sunday, Monday and Tuesday evenings from sunset. Vodafone, which is currently advertising on the site, has agreed to the changes, according to an Ocean Outdoor spokesperson. U.K. viewers won't see many TV commercials on the day of the funeral, too. Neither the U.K.’s biggest commercial broadcaster, ITV, nor the second biggest, Channel 4, will carry ads on any of their linear channels on Monday for 24 hours. Sky News is also pausing all ads for the day. This comes after a week in which several popular shows, including the BBC's "Strictly Come Dancing," were postponed to make way for rolling news coverage. Although September is a key month for new shows and dramas, according to Yatin Patel, head of AV at Publicis Media Exchange, media owners will expect to be able to recoup any lost revenue by adding extra minutes of commercial time later in the year. “It could be that ITV will get the peak minutage back in the Football World Cup in November for example, or Channel 4 through the 'Great British Bake Off'. It will be a balance and it will be unnoticeable to the consumer,” said Patel. Outdoor media owners are expected to recalibrate the cost of booked campaigns and return money to advertisers at the end of the run. But for print media, there could be something of a "halo effect," according to Rachel Plunkett, strategic partnerships director at Publicis Media Exchange, as people flock toward commemorative physical newspapers. Since the queen’s death, print newspapers have carried little or no advertising (for example, on Sept. 13., the only full-page ads in the Times newspaper were a tribute to the queen by P&O Cruises and an ad for a Queen Elizabeth II memorial teddy bear by toy company Steiff). However, sales have soared. The Guardian, for example, saw a 100% sales uplift on the day following the queen’s death. “Obviously it’s meant a couple of dark days for publishers, but it’s also meant huge newsstand sales and afterward we could see an influx of advertisers coming back to print,” said Plunkett. Both Patel and Plunkett said that most advertisers have been “understanding” about the hiatus and are also mindful of the mood of the nation and not being seen to “splurge” at a time of national mourning. As well as marketers pausing major campaigns (John Lewis, for example, put its new brand platform "Life's Moments" on hold temporarily), since the initial flurry of social media posts following the queen’s death, there has been a striking lack of campaigns paying tribute to the royals. Some may well have been put off by the social media storms over posts that were deemed to have been misjudged. They included energy brand Ecotricity, whose founder Dale Vince tweeted a photoshopped picture of the queen wearing a branded green shirt, with the words “Thanks Liz." Sex toy retailer Ann Summers, which tweeted a picture of the queen and the words “Thank you Your Majesty," was also roundly condemned. Other brands have been ridiculed for their misjudged attempts to pay tribute to the queen. Supermarket Tesco was called out on Twitter for displaying a tribute to the queen in stores next to cans of baked beans, while rival Morrisons was mocked for turning down the volume on its self-scanning machines “out of respect” for the monarchy. Actual photo from @Tesco in Bridgend. God rest Queen Liz, she did love her beans 🙏🙏🙏 pic.twitter.com/hBcbbJwGQq— Maxxx👽 (@NotOfThisGalexy) September 9, 2022 Thanks Liz. pic.twitter.com/VusQR9hEIw— Dale Vince (@DaleVince) September 8, 2022 “There have been a number of brands that have attempted to use the queen as some kind of borrowed interest to pull a social media stunt,” said Richard Robinson, managing director of Econsultancy. “If you are going to do social media well, you have to stop, think and act. What we’ve seen from a number of brands is that they’ve reversed this model and gone, act, think, stop." Several brands and organizations have backtracked on their strategies after social media ridicule. Holiday park company Center Parcs initially announced that it would be closed on Sept. 19 for the queen’s funeral, forcing guests to leave their accommodation. But it changed its mind after an outcry on social media (including a host of memes). Cycling organization British Cycling also backed down on its decision to tell people not to cycle during the funeral. The British tabloid media has been quick to pounce on even the most minor misstep—for example, MailOnline immediately spotted that a funeral director’s company logo was displayed on the queen’s hearse as it left Balmoral; it was quickly removed after what the Mail called a "social media backlash." “As a brand, you don’t want to end up on MailOnline,” said Joe Wade, co-founder of social purpose-focused London ad agency Don’t Panic. Wade questions whether advertisers are actually pausing campaigns because they feel that the public expected it, or due to a "herd mentality" born out of fear of vilification the tabloids and Twitter. “In my opinion it seems a bit of an over-reaction. Why should everything come to a halt?” he asked. And John McPartland, creative director at agency Leith, also questions whether everything needs to stop. "Campaigns that contain health messaging such as cancer detection or mental health face a pause on their much-needed awareness drive. Surely the importance of this work doesn’t diminish?" But in terms of what to expect in the run-up to the funeral, Econsultancy's Robinson does not expect any brands to take out full-page ads in tribute to the queen this weekend. “It would demonstrate that the brand doesn’t respect our culture. I genuinely can’t see it happening and if it did, the way the media is positioned at the moment is that it would go badly wrong very fast. This isn’t the time to profiteer.” While most industry observers expect advertisers to return to normal after the funeral by launching the campaigns they have paused, there could be a longer-term, "ripple" effect, said David Balko, chief client officer at Tribal Worldwide London. He predicts the events could influence the type of messaging seen in U.K. holiday ads this year. “Such an event does make the country think about it itself on a whole host of levels," Balko said. Does the change in monarchy make us change how we see ourselves as a country? You take a massive event like the death of the monarch, plus the cost of living crisis, and you suddenly get to a very different mood of the nation. So, you might change the underlying tonality of the message. ” Daisy Domenghini, VaynerMedia's managing director EMEA, said there could be other knock-on effects. "Football matches are one example of this. With many matches postponed and the already jam-packed schedule ahead of this year's World Cup, attention will now be acutely focused on when delayed matches go ahead. Viewing figures will skyrocket. Should brands be asking for a change in pricing? Should agencies? Attention and relevance will be focused in new places, which advertisers must consider." Econsultancy's Robinson also warns that advertisers will need to check the content of future campaigns for anything that seems inappropriate, monarchy-wise. "The public will not be able to cope with humor about the royals for an extended period of time." However, he adds that some members of the public will be keen to move on—and advertisers should remember that "Republicans are consumers, too."

UK advertising goes silent in lead-up to Queen Elizabeth's funeral

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