Proposals for ABD Meeting 23rd November
Discussion
Right - we've got a chance to point the ABD in the right direction at the meeting at Gaydon on 23/11/02.
So what are we asking for?
1) Attract corporate sponsorship from companies in teh motor industry.. if T2k can have self-serving corporations on their side then so can we!
once money is gained from this then
2) Professional press secretary, publicity poeple, media managers.
more suggestions please...
So what are we asking for?
1) Attract corporate sponsorship from companies in teh motor industry.. if T2k can have self-serving corporations on their side then so can we!
once money is gained from this then
2) Professional press secretary, publicity poeple, media managers.
more suggestions please...
Offer cheap £5.00 associate membership via car clubs, so instantly the membership figures are increased by the 40,000 MGCC, MGOC, PorscheClubUK, TVRCC members etc. Get them on the mailing llist and send them the news letter. Then the ABD could boast of a membership of over 100,000 !!! Rich...
RichB said: Offer cheap £5.00 associate membership via car clubs, so instantly the membership figures are increased by the 40,000 MGCC, MGOC, PorscheClubUK, TVRCC members etc. Get them on the mailing llist and send them the news letter. Then the ABD could boast of a membership of over 100,000 !!! Rich...
Very good one, remember but the ABD need serious funds to do stuff. Big membership Numbers = good, but corperate sponsership at point of sale would be cool. Like you get membership when you buy a new car? or when you renew insurance?
Attract corporate sponsorship from companies in teh motor industry
And indeed from any company whose income depends on road transport, from oil giants to haulage companies to hire car firms etc. Surely the financial clout of this lot would blow the likes of T2K and their motley collection of council backers out of the water.
(BTW, this thread could do with being in General Gassing, where more people are likely to see it.)
mondeoman said: Find a way to counter the T2000 knobheads with simple slogans, not reasoned debate.
Come up with "letters" that we can all start to send in to local newspapers (an idea of yours on another thread?) to counter the anti-car/child-killers brigade.
I think this should be their utmost priority; well the first part at least.
Today's media are uninterested in anything that requires thought or active consideration. They want press releases they can cut-and-paste, they want slogans that are ready-made headlines. They want simple slogans that are provocative, not necessarily wholly accurate. They need simple "truths" not complex arguments. We, the motoring lobby, must give them what they want if we are to compete on an equal footing for the hearts and minds of the great british public.
For example, the ABD chap I heard on the radio made some very good points but nearly lost the whole interview when he started talking about the "85th percentile" and risk thresholds. The presenters didn't immediately understand what he was talking about (I did) and tried to ridicule his argument and the people he represents (the word "moron" was used), to save their own face. Fortunately he persevered and succeeded, but it could easily have gone the other way.
Agree with the previous comments. The real problem with getting press is contacts & money. Now if the ABD could get Max Clifford, I know he is a knob, but he is the best at getting his clients seen and more importantly heard. His company could make a celebrity caught shagging a donkey look like animal welfare, the Abd, through inexperiance, would explain what a donkey is first, why it was there, and the likley outcome of this indiscresion. We live in a sound bite era, the attention span of the majority of the population is measured in seconds, which is why they use catch phrases "speed kills" just about everyone gets the message. The first rule in any fight is to pick one you can win first and win that, then move on to the next. The ABD are terrific guys who have started the ball rolling it now needs a large push.
We need sponsership from all areas associated with vehicle and road transport.
Unions who represent, engineering building the cars,
Road Haulage association,
Car manufacturers,
Road construction, Petrochemicals, Newspapers and car magazines. Civil liberties organisation.
We need sponsership from all areas associated with vehicle and road transport.
Unions who represent, engineering building the cars,
Road Haulage association,
Car manufacturers,
Road construction, Petrochemicals, Newspapers and car magazines. Civil liberties organisation.
1) Attract corporate sponsorship from companies in teh motor industry.. if T2k can have self-serving corporations on their side then so can we!
...
This by far and away the most important way forward. In addition to corporate sponsorship, lottery money can be effectively demanded as T2000 and other tosspots groups have it. There are a number of government agencies which have sponsored speed cameras and I have recently been trying to pursuade the automotive clusters to push some funds into the ABD. In general the manufacturers and distribution companies should be able to contribute. Oh and what about the car dependant out of town shopping centres who will be ****ed if people start walking?
Don't think we haven't tried!
The ABD has approached a great many car manufacturers, oil companies and similar - with no takers. The problem, I think, is that even the car industry is playing the political correctness game these days, and the ABD is not politically correct.
If anyone has any good contacts, and can make an initial enquiry on behalf of the ABD to see whether there is any opportunity to pitch to them, please let us know.
Ben
The ABD has approached a great many car manufacturers, oil companies and similar - with no takers. The problem, I think, is that even the car industry is playing the political correctness game these days, and the ABD is not politically correct.
If anyone has any good contacts, and can make an initial enquiry on behalf of the ABD to see whether there is any opportunity to pitch to them, please let us know.
Ben
RichB said: Offer cheap £5.00 associate membership via car clubs, so instantly the membership figures are increased by the 40,000 MGCC, MGOC, PorscheClubUK, TVRCC members etc. Get them on the mailing llist and send them the news letter. Then the ABD could boast of a membership of over 100,000 !!! Rich...
As the clubs contact for the ABD I'm pleased to inform you that we actually do better than that. Affiliation from the end of this year will be free for any club prepared to promote the ABD by carrying articles in club mags etc. So, if you are a car club member get onto your head office and ask them why they are not yet affiliated!! Tell them to contact me at clubs@abd.org.uk
Dave
I don't think that at this stage having a huge number of members is of much value. What is important is increasing the number of people who read newsletters and the like.
It's far too easy for even reasonably inteligent people to accept the logic that slower speeds will automatically result in better safety (even if it's a tiny change), without seeing any other part of the equation.
We don't just need simpler ideas (although these are essential) - we need to take small, acceptable, ideas and make people think about the indirect impacts. For example, slower speeds resulting in more accidents in bad weather.
A wider readership must be a high priority - so how do we achieve that? Google for 'road safety cambridge cycling' and check entry 6... (yes, i know, it's far to wordy, but it is 5 years old!)
Sean
It's far too easy for even reasonably inteligent people to accept the logic that slower speeds will automatically result in better safety (even if it's a tiny change), without seeing any other part of the equation.
We don't just need simpler ideas (although these are essential) - we need to take small, acceptable, ideas and make people think about the indirect impacts. For example, slower speeds resulting in more accidents in bad weather.
A wider readership must be a high priority - so how do we achieve that? Google for 'road safety cambridge cycling' and check entry 6... (yes, i know, it's far to wordy, but it is 5 years old!)
Sean
tsh said: I don't think that at this stage having a huge number of members is of much value
On the contrary. Like almost any voluntary organisation, the ABD membership is a few active people and many similarly minded, but inactive, members. If the membership was to grow by a factor of 10, and that's not unreasonable if you throw in the car club members/PistonHeaders etc, you wil get more active people involved, but more importantly, at even £5 a head, you will enable enough funding for those who are active to make a real difference - maybe even full-time employees, campaigners, etc.
And you can bet your life on it that T2000, SSI, etc are trying to do the same.
Neil
personally, I advocate the use of mindless violence, I am sick and tired of these soulless, interfering, petty busybodies trying to f**k with my lifestyle. An introduction to my friend 'Mr Baseball Bat' would probably do their cause more good than harm but, boy, it would make me feel good. What motivates these people?
could you demonstrate how their literature or position is 'anti-leftie'?
I'm sure they'd be attacking a Tory government with equal fervour, if they were in power right now and had so dramatically failed to provide an adequate transport system whilst all the time using the guise of road safety to fleece the motorist without providing him with access to any alternative public transport in many cases.
Personally, I'm prepared to admit now that IMO the Tories wouldn't not have been any more effective or any less unprincipled about the whole deal... they started it with the Fool Tax escalator and Gatsos. Doesn't make any difference which lot are in power because like so many other areas of domestic policy execution, transport's moribund by the grim vehicle that is the civil service.
>> Edited by CarZee on Monday 4th November 10:05
I'm sure they'd be attacking a Tory government with equal fervour, if they were in power right now and had so dramatically failed to provide an adequate transport system whilst all the time using the guise of road safety to fleece the motorist without providing him with access to any alternative public transport in many cases.
Personally, I'm prepared to admit now that IMO the Tories wouldn't not have been any more effective or any less unprincipled about the whole deal... they started it with the Fool Tax escalator and Gatsos. Doesn't make any difference which lot are in power because like so many other areas of domestic policy execution, transport's moribund by the grim vehicle that is the civil service.
>> Edited by CarZee on Monday 4th November 10:05
tsh said: I don't think that at this stage having a huge number of members is of much value. What is important is increasing the number of people who read newsletters and the like.
It's far too easy for even reasonably inteligent people to accept the logic that slower speeds will automatically result in better safety (even if it's a tiny change), without seeing any other part of the equation.
We don't just need simpler ideas (although these are essential) - we need to take small, acceptable, ideas and make people think about the indirect impacts. For example, slower speeds resulting in more accidents in bad weather.
A wider readership must be a high priority - so how do we achieve that? Google for 'road safety cambridge cycling' and check entry 6... (yes, i know, it's far to wordy, but it is 5 years old!)
Sean
Sorry, but you're missing the point - people today dont THINK! Thats why simple slogans are the only way to effect a change in public opinion. You need a nationwide poster campaign, TV advertising, daily papers etc. to rebut the Govn'mt and T2000 propoganda.
Thats what this will become - a propoganda war - and that requires clever, slick, SHORT messages. The soundbite era is here, like it or not. "A lie oft repeated becomes the truth"
Fight it on their level or not at all.
It occured to me that actual protests might be a way of getting the general feeling of most sane motorists accross to the political trash. So far the ABD has never rallied its members so far as I know. It might be a good idea to demonstrate by showing the public what it would be like under 20mph limits for long streches of road. A protest could therefore take the form of installing a 20 limit over say a hundred miles of town or city centre with a couple of hundred manned and unmanned speed cameras. This coupled with some PHers dressed as smellies oops sorry, anti car protesters could provide the kind of confusion that would get the point accross and leave the authorities confused as to the nature of the protest to the extent that we would be unlikely to be arrested in case we were found to be legitimate smellies oops sorry anti car protesters. Some nice arty imagery and children waving plackards saying "I am now a deprived child cos Mr Blairs anti speed campaign cost my dad his job" etc etc. Any ideas?
Gassing Station | Speed, Plod & the Law | Top of Page | What's New | My Stuff