Who’ll admit creating See it. Say it. Sorted ?

ALL travellers on public transport dread the incessant repetition of the slogan ‘See it. Say it. Sorted’, which is supposed to encourage us to get in touch with the British Transport Police (BTP). It has now been inflicted on us since November 2016, with no sign that it will ever end.

The advertising agency that created it, AML, defends it,

saying ‘texts and calls relating to suspicious circumstances have increased by 365 per cent’. This is – sort of – right, but not as good as it looks. BTP told me they had 45 reports between December 2016 and November 2017, and

216 between December 2018 and November 2019.

This is, in fact, an increase of 380 per cent, which just goes to show that percentages can make things look much bigger than they are. But it strikes me it is a poor return for 11,000 posters, plus unceasing announcements in 5,000 stations and 13,000 trains.

The chant is so annoying you can see people hunch their shoulders as it is broadcast yet again. Famous persons quite often claim to be the authors of successful advertising phrases, such as ‘Go to Work on an Egg’. But nobody will take responsibility for this one, which I think has irritated more people more quickly than any other five-word phrase in history.

When I called AML at its offices in trendy Shoreditch, East London, the agency would not reveal the identity of the author. It sent me to the Department for Transport, which referred me to BTP, which doesn’t know. If they are all so embarrassed about it, could they please stop inflicting it on us?