Did he just say “Tosser”?
This is unusual. It’s what amounts to a public service announcement about the dangers of youngsters falling into debt. Very zzzzzz you might think but this has some curiousity value, not just because of the free use of one of my favourite terms of abuse, or because of the noble attempt to increase awareness of one of Britain’s fastest growing social and financial problems.
What makes this noteworthy is that this is a viral by the UK’s Conservative Party. There’s no Tory branding within, unless you visit the viral’s supporting site Sort-It.co.uk, where there’s a tiny copyright label.
I am puzzled as to how this viral campaign could succeed. The fact that it’s made by a political party would be regarded a turn-off, and yet it’s that association that gives it its premium curiosity value.
I’m no great admirer of the Tories (or of any of the major parties – it is I who should be in charge), but it would make a refreshing change if David Cameron’s new brand of fluffified capitalists managed to reach out to our disengaged and disinterested youth with this and forthcoming virals covering homelessness and racism.
As long as the kids don’t vote Tory, of course.
(Or maybe that’s too mean)
Click here for Guardian article and link to Quicktime version (may require registration).
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3 comments:
I'm glad Cameron has raised the issue. It seems most of the senior New Labour politicians would rather talk about happy slapping and extremism - tabloid exagerrated problems which in reality affect a miniscule number of teenagers. Whereas debt is a worry for the majority of teenagers (particularly with crippling tuition fees)
It's a very good point how there's no Tory logo on the website. Indeed the only place the party name can be found is in the smallprint, and if the problem of teen debt tells us one thing, it's that teenagers don't read smallprint.
I think destroying your credit rating is all part of the college experience. Whatever doesn't kill you...and all that. It's a learning experience. But, maybe it should be addressed by conservatives, because liberals are too busy letting you do what you want no matter what!
I feel desperately sorry for today's youth, especially those going into higher education. My generation had it easy, with grants and a pretty robust secondary education system. That's all gone now.
And it's this younger generation who weren't voters in 1997, and so weren't bamboozled by Tony Blair. If they had been, then they'd be just as wary of David Cameron who seems to have placed the Tories in the same moral position that Labour was in shortly before coming to power.
I hope my cynicism is misplaced.
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