Home » Forums

[MSE Lawrence]

This is the discussion to link on the back of Martin's blog. Please read the blog first, as this discussion follows it.

Read Martin's "I've given up trying to fight "the credit crunch" Blog.

Click reply to discuss below.

[20000RPM]

Originally Posted by MSE Martin

Now it’ll be a seamless response as if they’d just said “economic downturn”.

No-one seems to use the 'R' word any more.

[JimmyTheWig]

There's always a difficult line between being accurate and being understood.

I remember a story about a campaign aimed at older people to keep their doors and windows closed in the winter to keep their houses warm. They ended up having to tell them to "keep the cold out" because this is how most people understood what was happening. In reality, there is no such thing as "cold" to be kept out. But it was more important to get the message across than be scientifically correct.

[SnargleFlip]

I was rather dismayed when I saw just how quickly BBC news came out with a whole new logo, graphic, colour scheme, visuals, etc for 'The Downturn', replete with downard pointing arrows and general doom and gloom. They now use this branding on every single story related to the CreditCrunchRecessionEconomyDownturn thingy.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/in_depth/business/2008/downturn/default.stm

I initially thought how unhelpful, particularly so early on in proceedings, because at least half of the problem is with people's perception of matters and a growing unwillingness to continue spending in the way they used to. Surely by branding it so strongly they only ratify the problem and thus make it more acute.

But then, perhaps, on balance it's a good thing. The doom and gloom fostered by the excessive news coverage only serves to focus people's attention to their finances. The quicker our personal, business, country and world economic problems are to be realised, the quicker the 'reality' of the country's finances are realised, the sooner we can feel confident that we have a true picture of where we stand financially and what we can do to get things moving forward again.

[mumoffour77]

SnargleFlip........I agree with your statement on the news coverage bringing peoples attentions to their finances. It certainly made me have a good look at mine!!

[Moonchild]

We don't mention those words in our offices. Instead we have agreed to call it 'Monster Munch'. That way we can mention it without feeling a sense of impending doom, and without inspiring depression, making it almost fun!

After all the whole thing is partly a self fulfilling prophecy.

So come on Martin, stop using 'credit crunch', you get so much exposure, if you start using 'Monster Munch' instead, i'm sure you'd quickly spread a happy feeling around the nation instead!