Edinburgh Sucks! | It’s totally unbelieveable

COSLA

It’s totally unbelieveable - a COSLA nighmare

By The Basa ⋅ November 4, 2005 ⋅

Branding Guru Teflon ‘Don’ Anderson has been nominated to lead a “task group” for COSLA (Convention of Scottish Local Authorities) which will decide how to conduct the marketing and branding of councils collectively across Scotland.

Teflon Don who spent £880.000 to brand Edinburgh ‘the inspiring capital’ (Click Here) forgot to register the domain name and made the branding agency and the council the laughing stock of branding throughout the world. The cock-up is being used in teaching materials in colleges and universities throughout the USA, Australia, the UK and Europe. Not only do we at EdinburghSucks get emails almost daily from students around the world but we have also had many, many congratulations from some of the top branding agencies in the world.

Susan Gemmell, COSLA’s policy manager said

“On the flip side, however, people don’t really know what local government is about - we lack identity. Councils are viewed as expensive, over-bureaucratic and inefficient and people do not respect the political office of councillors. We also lack confidence which means we don’t shout loudly enough about our successes.”

She’s right. We at EdinburghSucks didn’t know that Edinburgh’s council actually had any successes - they are a bloody nightmare who screw up everything they get their hands into. The reason people do not respect the political office of councillors is because the majority of people are of the opinion that their councillors are taking bungs. We haven’t made this up, we get up to 100 emails daily and that is what our readers are telling us. The council is viewed as expensive, over-bureaucratic and inefficient because, and guess why? Because they are expensive, over-bureaucratic and inefficient - fact!

Anderson says: “I think it is very, very important part of the governance of Scotland that local government is presented as positively as possible. Local authorities touch the lives of every citizen and every community in Scotland and it is important that we are portrayed not in a spun way, but in the right light.”

Anderson concedes that, at the moment, councils are “not the most highly esteemed part of the governance of Scotland although people are more trusting of local politicians then national politicians”.

With the quote above, it means that Teflon Don must be changing his ways and getting rid of the scores of press officers and going to become honest! That would be a refreshing change - but we won’t hold our collective breaths.

We can’t believe it - slimeball Anderson to screw up marketing branding not only for Edinburgh but he is going to do it for the country - call the removals company now!

More Info: Can a COSLA makeover save councils? (Paid Subscription)