UK Inland Revenue Comes Top...In Poll Of Annoying Adverts

by Jason Gorringe, Tax-News.com, London

07 January 2002

According to an Adwatch poll conducted for Marketing Magazine, the Inland Revenue has been afforded the dubious honour of having created the most annoying advertising campaign in the United Kingdom.

The adverts feature actress Pauline McLynn as Mrs Doyle, a character from the popular television show Father Ted, and urge self-assessment taxpayers to 'Go on, go on, go on, go on' and fill in their tax returns. However, far from striking the nation's funny bone, the Inland Revenue appear to have come up with a campaign which sticks in the craw of all but the most tolerant viewer.

The 1,000 people surveyed deemed the advert as 'the most abrasive, aggravating, disturbing, infuriating, annoying, and cheesy TV ad', and two in five of those questioned admitted that they could not bear to watch it. Speaking to reporters last week, Dave Waters, who last year chaired a prominent advertising award panel, supported the findings of the survey:

'The advert has no redeeming features,' he commented, adding that: 'You have to be quite intelligent to fill in the tax form, but they treat you like an idiot.'

However for the Inland Revenue it seems, all publicity is good publicity. Responding to the news on Friday, a spokesman said: ' We are delighted that people have noticed Mrs Doyle and act on her money saving message.' He revealed that a fresh batch of advertisements are due to launch this week.

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