Uncovering popular appeal in banality is part of PR’s daily grind. But occasionally, a story emerges that captivates with its simplicity.
The Cockney cash machine – which lets users get their sausage and mash, check their balance on the Charlie Sheen and so on and so forth – comes courtesy of a national ATM operator (Bank Machine).
And would you Adam and Eve it? Journalists were so bewitched by headline opportunities that this has gone everywhere. The story cleverly explores a number of angles, in a rare campaign that covers all media bases:
Broadsheets
The Times reports that Bank Machine “hopes that ATMs will serve to keep… dialects alive in Britain". The company’s cultural objective, albeit dubious, is well suited to the broadsheet agenda.
Tabloids
The pun-hungry redtops have lapped it up. The Mirror quotes the Bank Machine boss: “We wanted something fun and some residents will visit just to have a butcher's.”
Meanwhile, and unsurprisingly, The Sun indulges in its own gratuitous slang.
International
Worldwide press and news sites have seized the opportunity for Anglophilia. The Orlando Sentinel praises British eccentricity (“London keeps giving me reasons to think it’s tipping the scales of awesomeness all the time”) and even The Jamaica Observer delves into the origins of Cockney lingo.
Local / Broadcast
The story had its own report on last night's local BBC news.
And finally, the local press adds some regional flavour, with East London Advertiser giving us directions (“at Bow's famous Roman Road Market, on the corner of Grove Road and St Stephen's Road”, in case you fancy a butcher’s").
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