Richard Northedge

Twenty-five years on, the game begins again

Richard Northedge says the gimmicks used to sell BT will soon have to be dusted off for RBS and Lloyds

issue 17 October 2009

In the autumn of 1984, solicitors were allowed to advertise for the first time, but if the public failed to spot their modest announcements it was probably because the newspapers were awash with a much more unusual publicity blitz. The government was selling half of British Telecommunications, as the phone company was then called, and it needed the help of people who had never previously owned a share.

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