Succeeding the COI.(Cabinet Office )

The government will struggle to convince many of the value of a UK Ad Council.

Health Secretary Andrew Lansley provided a valuable clue to the government's thinking on public sector advertising in the summer.

In a speech to the Faculty of Public Health annual conference in July, he said the government would be 'progressively scaling back the amount

of taxpayers' money spent on Change4Life ...

while government pump-primed the brand, we will now withdraw the primer'.

Then came the killer quote: 'We have to make Change4Life less a government campaign, more a social movement. Less paid for by government, more backed by business. To date, industry has made 'in-kind' contributions. I will now be pressing them to provide actual funding behind the campaign.'

Industry insiders dismissed the idea as a slip by the health …