Opinion: On the Campaign Couch ... with JB.

Q: Our new client, clearly out to make a name for himself, has decided we must change the strapline on a particular ad campaign. The line has been running for years and has become synonymous with the brand. Everyone who works on the account at the agency believes the line is a precious commodity; the client is determined it should go. Do you have any advice?

A: I do apologise. You sent me this question a couple of years ago and it somehow got buried at the bottom of my pending file.

It's a funny thing, creative consistency. People are seldom consistent in their approach to it. Agencies fortunate enough to have handled an account for 60 years are strangely in favour of consistency. New marketing directors are not. On the other hand, agencies invited to pitch for an account that has been held by another agency for 60 years are in favour of change.

At the same time, incumbent marketing directors, when presented with a new and unwanted creative team, fear change above all else.

Straplines fall into two categories: dead and alive. A live strapline is a rare and wonderful thing. It encapsulates the brand; it invites participation; it is a little miracle of wit, in that it compresses a thought while refreshing its meaning.

A dead strapline just sits there, sullen and uncommunicative. It may have meant something 60 years ago but it now depends for its survival entirely on superstition: nobody thinks it does any good but nobody wants to be responsible for its burial.

The best marketing directors and agencies know that a good strapline can be protected from decomposition by constant ingenuity. Just as the strapline should epitomise the brand, so each different advertisement should re-illuminate the strapline. To be consistent is not synonymous with being stale.