“Alight here for ZSL,” said the disembodied voice on the Bakerloo line underground train.
(Alight? It’s one of those words you only ever hear on the
underground. Do they teach it to foreign tourists, the main customers of the
underground? Or do they have to work it out for themselves there and then?)
And ZSL? Who can say what that is?
In his seminal book Creative Advertising: For This You Went
To Oxford? (1974), David Bernstein (my first creative director) mocked
organisations that have the hubris to present themselves under meaningless acronyms,
in the mistaken belief that it will add to their marketability and cred. “Either
customers know what the initials mean or they don’t. If they do, you are no
further forward,” wrote Bernstein.
Did RHM boost awareness, recognition or reputation for Rank
Hovis McDougall?
Does being P&G help Procter & Gamble to grow any faster?
Except as shorthand, is JWT really an improvement on the
long-established (and real human-being-based) J Walter Thompson, my first ad agency?
ZSL? That would be London Zoo, of course.
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