Want to cut public spending? Spend more on advertising!

In 2008, the UK central government spent 163195m in advertising, becoming thus the largest of all advertisers in the country. Despite wide criticism of these expenditures, it has to be observed that advertising demonstrated time and time again its ability to influence behaviour in the commercial environment. Thus, it is suggested here that governments could also use advertising to influence people at lesser expenses than with tough regulations. Examples of effective campaigns in the UK are the recent National Health Services anti-smoking campaign, or the department of work and pensions campaign about benefit fraud. The Stroke Association campaign also described how to recognise stroke symptoms and how to react - a campaign that reached far more people than a series of trainings would ever have. As a conclusion, it is found that governments should actually get more marketing savvy and improve their communication campaigns, bearing in mind that the rules of commercial advertising will also apply to them.