Chris Powell

Chairman of BMP DDB, the ad agency responsible for high-profile ad campaigns for companies such as PG Tips, Barclaycard and Volkswagen. He has been behind Labour's advertising for the past four elections
Chris Powell
Chris Powell
After September 11,experts were predicting a huge downturn in consumer confidence and the expectation was that advertising was going to be hit very hard by this.But this simply hasn 't happened.

People are extraordinarily resilient. September 11 has been, in the UK at least, akin to a large natural disaster that happened elsewhere and it hasn't had the effect that was anticipated.Consumer spending has continued to rise and while there has been a huge impact on the amount that advertisers are willing to spend, this is due to businesses being wary and is not a true reflection of what's happening on the high street.

Prior to September 11, the industry was already suffering the effects of a downturn in advertising spend that was essentially a result of the technology bubble bursting.While the events of that day have delayed the recovery period of that downturn, they have not actu- ally intensified it. Businesses are being very cautious indeed; they are waiting for the next hit.They're sure that there's going to be another al-Qaida attack or a war with Iraq and for this reason they're unwilling to pump large amounts of money into any big projects.

Claire Coleman

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