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Public service advertising is unique since a large part of its remit involves telling people what not to do, Alison Hoad writes.
The Government is the only advertiser in the UK that aims to get people to stop, as well as to start or continue, doing something.
Every other media pound in Britain is spent on motivating people to do something, whether drinking Stella Artois or taking out health insurance with Bupa.
A lot of government money is also spent on motivating people, be it to join the Army, to learn to read or to pay for a TV licence.
The exceptional ability of advertising to motivate people to do these exact things (and many more besides) is detailed in a wealth of IPA cases.
The points discussed here are special because they aim to de-motivate people from doing things - be that smoking, drink-driving or using illegal minicabs at the end of the night.
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