The UK government has revealed a huge surge of nearly 50% in its communications spend over the last year in a bid to tackle a series of high-profile issues such as smoking, benefit fraud and car tax evasion.
The Central Office of Information (COI), the government's marketing and communications agency, announced a whopping rise of 43% in advertising and marketing spending to £540 million during the 12 months to the end of March.
The COI put the increase down to its commitment to communicate with the public in dealing with the range of challenges that society is currently facing, including climate change, obesity and road safety.
Areas of spending that saw particularly handsome increases were digital marketing, which grew by a staggering 84% to £40 million, and news and PR, boosted by a 52% year-on-year increase from £27 million to £41 million.
Traditional advertising, such as TV, press and radio, still took lion's share of the marketing spend, growing by 35% to £211 million.
Opposition parties will be predictably lining up to take a swipe at any increase in government spending in the present economic climate.
Yet it should prove money well spent, if the campaigns continue to prevent unnecessary deaths, save money and reduce the burden that many of these issues have on the taxpayer.
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