CLOSE-UP: LIVE ISSUE - ESURE. Winner's unorthodox style ruffles some feathers in adland, but Esure gets results.

Esure's back-to-basics ads have made it a household brand name.

Twelve months ago, Esure was one of many outfits jostling for a share of the overcrowded insurance market. Today it's a brand even the uninsurable are familiar with. We all now know what the company sells and most of us understand how its offering differs from that of its rivals.

Such is the power of advertising. Or rather, such is the power of Michael Winner. The column-writing, restaurant-reviewing, film-directing raconteur is quite happy to take credit for Esure's turnaround. After all, not only did he star in the company's recent TV campaign, but he wrote and directed it as well. He even scouted the locations.

Oddly, adland doesn't seem terribly keen on congratulating Winner for his work. Maybe his ads are too crude and coarse for the average agency palate. Perhaps his personality is too risible and his scripts are too absurd. Surely everyone can see that these ads are mere pantomime scenes compared with the well-crafted, painstakingly researched, strategic tour de forces one reads about in Campaign?

'Commercials are meant to sell whatever the person making them, the person paying for them, wants to sell,' Winner counters. 'As wonderful as Campaign is, it's not the be-all and end-all. My commercial was not only successful, it has become part of the language.'

We needn't just take Winner's word for this. His current employers agree with his assessment whole-heartedly. 'The Michael Winner campaign has proved extremely successful,' an Esure spokeswoman claims.

She goes on to explain that in the London and Central regions, where the campaign was first launched, the number of insurance quotes requested as a direct result of the advertising has increased by 15 per cent.