THREE Better Together adverts that never quite made it have surfaced after being leaked to a trade magazine.
The adverts, all using TV shows and adverts to lampoon independence, were dismissed as “cringeworthy” by an SNP politician.
A source with close links to Better Together leaked the adverts to marketing trade magazine The Drum.
One poster sees former First Minister Alex Salmond alongside the tagline: “It’ll be Alright on the Night”. Another has him out of focus behind a hand with fingers crossed and the statement “the National Lottery”. The other appropriates the titles for I’m A Celebrity, Get Me Out of Here, and makes them read: ‘I’m a Businessman, Get Me Out of Here”.
According to The Drum, the three were proposed to Better Together’s marketing team by creatives working on the campaign, but were never used as they were thought “too offensive” and “might generate sympathy for Salmond”.
Giles Moffatt, managing director of Home Agency in London who worked on the Better Together advertising team, confirmed to The Drum that the adverts were legitimate.
“From memory, these were shown in focus groups and got a wry smile, as a lot of people felt Salmond was ‘busking it’. It will be interesting to see in this EU debate whether any of the Stay or Leave groups can tap into the public psyche,” Moffatt told the magazine.
SNP MSP James Dornan told the National that it was the Yes campaign who were laughing now: “These cringeworthy attempts at humour are no less insulting to the intelligence of people in Scotland than most of the material produced by the self-styled Project Fear.
“After they were all but wiped out in the 2015 election, we doubt anyone who took part in No campaign is laughing now.”
In Joe Pike’s behind-the-scenes look at the No campaign, Project Fear, he reveals that one planned advert described as “scare tactics on steroids” would featured girders breaking, oil running out and children standing at the edge of a cliff as the country was ripped in two.
Alistair Darling’s wife Maggie is said to have remarked: “It’s like Nightmare on Sauchiehall Street,” and convinced him not to use it.
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