Abstract
During the last two and half years, British Nuclear Fuels havevspent approaching 9 million pounds on advertising, expenditure designed to increase the public's acceptance of nuclear power and BNFL's operations in particular. That money has been spent against a difficult background, the campaign having started just seven weeks after the Chernobyl disaster, although the strategy, was developed before Chernobyl changed so many people's attitude towards nuclear power. Sellafield was seen by many in the nuclear industry, and not only in Britain, as a major problem, and the public, judging by opinion research conducted at the time, shared that view. Research showed: Most people Saw BNFL as an environmental polluter and a danger to health; Sellafield was aeon as a dangerous place at which to work or near which to live; BNFL was seen as secretive and dishonest. One of the major argument for using advertising as the focal point of any major campaign is that, unlike press relations, it can be controlled. This was particularly important, as the press coverage was already bad, and something dramatic had to be done to change the situation. At first, we considered two fairly obvious strategies. To try and explain the benefits of nuclear
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Cartwright, Bob
[1]
- BNFL (United Kingdom)
Citation Formats
Cartwright, Bob.
The role of advertising in promoting Sellafield.
IAEA: N. p.,
1989.
Web.
Cartwright, Bob.
The role of advertising in promoting Sellafield.
IAEA.
Cartwright, Bob.
1989.
"The role of advertising in promoting Sellafield."
IAEA.
@misc{etde_20555998,
title = {The role of advertising in promoting Sellafield}
author = {Cartwright, Bob}
abstractNote = {During the last two and half years, British Nuclear Fuels havevspent approaching 9 million pounds on advertising, expenditure designed to increase the public's acceptance of nuclear power and BNFL's operations in particular. That money has been spent against a difficult background, the campaign having started just seven weeks after the Chernobyl disaster, although the strategy, was developed before Chernobyl changed so many people's attitude towards nuclear power. Sellafield was seen by many in the nuclear industry, and not only in Britain, as a major problem, and the public, judging by opinion research conducted at the time, shared that view. Research showed: Most people Saw BNFL as an environmental polluter and a danger to health; Sellafield was aeon as a dangerous place at which to work or near which to live; BNFL was seen as secretive and dishonest. One of the major argument for using advertising as the focal point of any major campaign is that, unlike press relations, it can be controlled. This was particularly important, as the press coverage was already bad, and something dramatic had to be done to change the situation. At first, we considered two fairly obvious strategies. To try and explain the benefits of nuclear power and BNFL's role, and secondly to explain the risks and put them into the context of other everyday risks. The campaign started in June 1986, with colour advertisements in magazines and newspaper supplements. Attached to the advertisement were invitation cards, with nine million printed. This was followed by a 50 second TV advertisement, broadcast nationally. Our aim to make the campaign newsworthy certainly worked. With the help of a public relations exercise, the TV ad was shown on a wide range of news programmes, and many newspaper articles were written about this new approach to selling nuclear power to the public. People started to visit Sellafield in ever increasing numbers. The biggest surprise was at the end of 1987, when Sellafield was named by the English Tourist Board as the country's fastest growing tourist attraction. The reaction of the public at large, showed they thought: The advertisements were responsible and informative, not propagandist; they disarmed 'antis'; and they delivered a positive safety message - people said 'they would not let you in if it wasn't safe'. One major result of the success of the campaign in attracting visitors to Sellafield was that we had to improve our visitors facilities, an exhibition centre which was being literally overrun by visitors. Sellafield Sightseer buses, are introduced. They are equipped with videos so that visitors could see what was happening in the plant, while any of our newer plants under construction are having viewing galleries incorporated into them. It is known that a combination of advertising and visitors facilities is having a positive impact on those who visit Sellafield. And they are now becoming statistically significant, with perhaps 2 million likely to visit the Centre during the next 10-15 years. To Conclude, we have used advertising as a focal point in a campaign which incorporates many other areas of publicity - press relations, exhibitions, visits, films and brochures. We believe that advertising, and particularly TV advertising, is crucial in trying to achieve major changes in attitudes.}
place = {IAEA}
year = {1989}
month = {Jul}
}
title = {The role of advertising in promoting Sellafield}
author = {Cartwright, Bob}
abstractNote = {During the last two and half years, British Nuclear Fuels havevspent approaching 9 million pounds on advertising, expenditure designed to increase the public's acceptance of nuclear power and BNFL's operations in particular. That money has been spent against a difficult background, the campaign having started just seven weeks after the Chernobyl disaster, although the strategy, was developed before Chernobyl changed so many people's attitude towards nuclear power. Sellafield was seen by many in the nuclear industry, and not only in Britain, as a major problem, and the public, judging by opinion research conducted at the time, shared that view. Research showed: Most people Saw BNFL as an environmental polluter and a danger to health; Sellafield was aeon as a dangerous place at which to work or near which to live; BNFL was seen as secretive and dishonest. One of the major argument for using advertising as the focal point of any major campaign is that, unlike press relations, it can be controlled. This was particularly important, as the press coverage was already bad, and something dramatic had to be done to change the situation. At first, we considered two fairly obvious strategies. To try and explain the benefits of nuclear power and BNFL's role, and secondly to explain the risks and put them into the context of other everyday risks. The campaign started in June 1986, with colour advertisements in magazines and newspaper supplements. Attached to the advertisement were invitation cards, with nine million printed. This was followed by a 50 second TV advertisement, broadcast nationally. Our aim to make the campaign newsworthy certainly worked. With the help of a public relations exercise, the TV ad was shown on a wide range of news programmes, and many newspaper articles were written about this new approach to selling nuclear power to the public. People started to visit Sellafield in ever increasing numbers. The biggest surprise was at the end of 1987, when Sellafield was named by the English Tourist Board as the country's fastest growing tourist attraction. The reaction of the public at large, showed they thought: The advertisements were responsible and informative, not propagandist; they disarmed 'antis'; and they delivered a positive safety message - people said 'they would not let you in if it wasn't safe'. One major result of the success of the campaign in attracting visitors to Sellafield was that we had to improve our visitors facilities, an exhibition centre which was being literally overrun by visitors. Sellafield Sightseer buses, are introduced. They are equipped with videos so that visitors could see what was happening in the plant, while any of our newer plants under construction are having viewing galleries incorporated into them. It is known that a combination of advertising and visitors facilities is having a positive impact on those who visit Sellafield. And they are now becoming statistically significant, with perhaps 2 million likely to visit the Centre during the next 10-15 years. To Conclude, we have used advertising as a focal point in a campaign which incorporates many other areas of publicity - press relations, exhibitions, visits, films and brochures. We believe that advertising, and particularly TV advertising, is crucial in trying to achieve major changes in attitudes.}
place = {IAEA}
year = {1989}
month = {Jul}
}