Hard sell

"Brutal simplicity of thought" is the first of the six principles on which the advertising agency M&C Saatchi claims to be built. That is because "simple messages enter the brain quicker and stay longer", according to its self-promotional blurb. You can see why Coutts, bankers to the Queen and other unfashionable but top people, recently turned to the advertising executives who gave us "Labour Isn't Working", in its quest to go down-market.

Now the Inland Revenue, whose only notable brush with the devices of the not-so-hidden persuaders so far has been a rather patronising cartoon character in a bowler hat, wants a "simple message", too. Perhaps the geniuses of Maurice and Charles's agency will come up with something along the lines of "We take your money".

Never mind the difficulty of turning that proposition into what the Saatchi brothers call a "creative hard sell", however, we cannot help but feel that something precious will be lost in the process. The one way to ensure that the Inland Revenue is stripped of its reputation for probity is for it to hire an advertising agency to tell us how trustworthy, scrupulous and courteous it is.