Ex-Just Eat chief risks uproar over call to slash ads

Former Just Eat chief executive David Buttress – appointed “cost of living tsar” last week – is risking the wrath of the advertising and marketing industry by urging brands to slash their marketing spend and divert the cash into lowering prices.

Buttress, who supports Welsh independence and called for Boris Johnson to quit over Partygate in January, has been appointed by Cabinet Office Minister Steve Barclay to come up with ideas to tackle rising living costs.

He told the BBC that he would encourage his “old friends and colleagues… to help the British people” and intends to make “real practical interventions” to get brands, supermarkets and utilities to lower costs.

Buttress added: “If you think about all the money that’s spent on marketing and doing deals to promote some of the big leisure activities that the British people enjoy – let’s take some of that money. Let’s refocus it on what really matters to people which is making their prices more competitive so their money goes further and they can still enjoy a good day out as a family.”

He added: “There’s a really important job to do here – I think it says everything about this government and the prime minister that actually they’re putting someone like me in place, who really cares about it, who wants to make a big impact in this area.

“I don’t think I have to convince anyone. I think what I have to do is get off my backside and offer some practical things in place around those areas we’ve discussed that hit people’s real lives. All of us are in it together, which is why I want my old colleagues in business and industry to come to the party in the next six months and help.”

However, his “advice” is likely to be greeted with dismay at industry bodies such as the Advertising Association and the IPA, whose long-standing recommendation to brands is to ensure they continue marketing spend in a downturn.

In fact, in 2020 at the height of the Covid pandemic, the IPA ran a series of newspaper ads in partnership with the Financial Times, aimed at reminding key decision makers at brands about the power of advertising during a downturn.

The ads were part of the trade body’s EffWorks initiative, which champions effectiveness in advertising and is backed by research conducted by Peter Field and Les Binet.

One read: “Stuck at home made a little easier with trusted household names.” Another said: “When others go quiet your voice gets louder.”

At the time, Eff Week founder and director Janet Hull said: “We hope to raise awareness of the commercial impact of brands and to provide marketers and agencies with the support they need to make the case for long term investment which is even more important today.”

TOPICS:Advertising Association data-driven marketing IPA