Would You Adam & Eve It?

Another heartwarming advert from a big advertising agency - cue slow-mo and a classic music backing track. For John Lewis & Partners and Waitrose & Partners, apparently 'for us, it's personal'. 

It certainly feels personal that the 2 minute 30 second advert depicts a school production the like of which has never been seen before. Just how much would it cost, do you think, to make the 8 foot space shuttle, for the professional mixing desk, the grand piano, the fireworks, the stage rigging and the moving scenery - not to mention little Johnny and Matilda being wire-lifted off stage (pause while I take a deep health and safety breath).

School budgets have been slashed (in real terms), provision for pupils with special needs is determined by the quality of an online application for funding resulting in indiscriminate amounts being awarded seemingly randomly, there are severe difficulties with the recruitment of quality teachers in the South East and the issues of social mobility remain. 

So am I just a bah-humbug to feel annoyed that a business, whose core values centre on equality and fairness, and an agency whose founder preached that, “the most powerful element in advertising is the truth” (Bill Bernbach, DDB) use this entirely unrealistic and impossible school-based scenario to sell more goods? Yes, it is a funny advert, yes, I’d love to have been the teacher with the vision and resources to put on this full-scale production. But to stage this rendition of Bohemian Rhapsody would have put my school into an immediate financial deficit.  I'm sure the parents would have loved it, but the Local Authority financial services department might have had something to say.

So, as the agency plan how to spend their revenues whilst creating the next full-feature advert, and John Lewis & Partners sell….actually, I’m not sure what they were selling with that ad….we will carry on putting on shows full of warmth, charm and character that give all pupils a chance to shine and involve a lot of creativity with tea towels and toilet rolls.

Hey ho - anyway the wind blows - doesn't really matter to me - right? 

But it does. 

In Kent, many headteachers will be supporting the WorthLess? campaign march to Downing Street on 28th September. The objective being to lobby parliament in advance of the next spending review to ensure that education is at the forefront of their thinking. Let's hope the voices of senior leaders will be listened to before our schools are in irreversible crisis.