R U Ready 4 PP?

Of course product placement is nothing new on television, but from the end of February 2011, product placement in the UK will be legitimised and regulated by Ofcom with the arrival of their ‘PP’ logo. For a minimum of 3 seconds at the beginning of a programme, after adverts and again at the end, broadcasters will be required to show the PP logo on screen.

Ofcom’s new rules were conceived to allow broadcasters to access new revenue streams, while at the same time protecting viewers. It is this tension that gets to the heart of the matter. That as viewers we are seen as helpless victims of unscrupulous programme-makers in need of protection is bad enough. But for Ofcom to offer a logo to save our souls is pretty pathetic.

Nevertheless Ofcom could be making TV history here in the UK. It is just possible that this is the first time a logotype is held responsible for our visual, financial and moral well-being?

If the world wide web has taught us anything, it is that ‘invasive’ or unsolicited advertising tends to have more of a negative impact on a brand than than a determining one on the consumer.

This issue is moral posturing on the part of Ofcom and the government and tells us little about the effects of design and advertising.

Emerge 2010 poster

'Emerge', in its second year as part of the London Design Festival, is a 'showcase' of design students handpicked by Pentagram's Dominic Lippa. The resulting posters will be displayed in East London tube stations. What at first sight seems like a great idea, quickly and most unfortunately, loses its way.

Presuming that I have had the correct information on the 'brief' – 'using only Pantone colours 485 and 361 they were to design a poster based on one of the letters or numbers E m e r g e 2 0 1 0.' – this was a missed opportunity, especially it being for recent design graduates.

The above is not really a brief at all. It means the practitioners need think little or nothing of context, audience, purpose or indeed the history of type and typography.

Of course this is not their fault! But for someone of the stature and experience of Dominic Lippa we might have expected better. Free reign is one thing but this is quite another.

It could have been much more of a challenge for both the practitioner and the audience if the poster project played a part in illuminating the design process, instead we are left with mere decoration.

Modernist architect and designer Adolf Loos – author of 'decoration is a crime' – would be spinning in his grave...

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