Getting the right message
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In any difficult situation there are always a hundred and one reasons for doing nothing. Keeping one's head down is a time-honoured principle in times of trouble. All credit then to the York Trailer Company for deciding to take the plunge and do something to counteract the continuing criticisms of road freight transport. This week the company has launched a campaign to put over to the public the wonderful job that road transport is doing.
The company's initial £10,000 campaign will be conducted through national newspaper advertisements, through slogan stickers for trucksand cars and through a free briefing booklet giving facts, figures and arguments for champions of road transport to use at every opportunity. The chosen slogan — "If you've got it, a truck brought it" — comes from America, where they are used to such campaigns, and is none the worse for that.
Getting the campaign started is one thing. Keeping it going is quite another, and this is where other manufacturers and vehicle operators come in. York hopes that others with a stake in the road transport industry will take the theme up and help to carry the message along. We hope so, too. And though the slogan stickers understandably carry a bright red York logo, the company has said frankly that other ,manufacturers are welcome to take up the slogan and use it, with or without their own company name — and the same offer extends to some of the initial advertising material.
Any campaign carries the risk of backlash and misrepresentation, but to avoid action on that account seems to us a counsel of despair. We believe York has rightly judged that road transport operators are itching to put their case across, given the right material. Now is the time for them to stand up and be counted. The transport industry is vulnerable because it does all its work in the public eye. But by the same token any message on its vehicles is on the biggest set of mobile hoardings in the country. •