Shock horror! The Times messes with its own masthead. But does the gamble pay off?

Everything else might change ... the format of the paper, the use of colour, even its political leanings, but the masthead remains sacrosanct.  The possible exception to this rule is the publication formerly known as The Manchester Guardian.

So imagine my surprise and delight when I caught the current advertising campaign for ‘The Times'.  At the core of this work is a devastatingly simple and compelling idea: be part of the times.  It suggests that if you really want to know what's going on in this screwed-up world of ours, you should take a newspaper that takes news seriously.

In a time when much of the media is awash with PR-produced drivel about Z-listers, ‘The Times' continue to invest in journalists who are close to their subject and on a mission to inform. 

So for example, one of the ads takes care to point out that ‘The Times' has more dedicated science and environment correspondents than ‘The Guardian', ‘The Daily Telegraph', ‘The Daily Mail' or ‘The Independent'.  The copy is straight and straight to the point. No fluff. No empty boasting.  And therefore all the more credible. 

But what of the masthead?  Visually, the campaign is driven by a neat conceit. The masthead is blasted across the space.  But, and this is the bit that took me aback ... the coat of arms has been surgically removed and safely locked away top left.  This creates a space between the words ‘THE' and ‘TIMES'. 

And this gives the art director the opportunity to thrust a variety of images into the character spaces - like an aerial shot of a ship sailing through ice floes. It is an arresting and memorable use of still photography. And again, it reinforces the point that newspapers still - or anyway, should - have an important role in a democratic society, that is, to keep us abreast of the big issues.

While I have referred to this campaign as ‘advertising', like all good communications it has the power to stick in your mind and encourage a physical response. In this case, make you pause at the newsstand when you leave the tube to pick up the newspaper and bookmark the online publication when you get to work! 

Just as the news, when it's properly presented, provokes a (direct) response, so does this thunderingly great campaign for ‘The Times'.

Simon S Kershaw is a creative consultant. A former executive creative director at Craik Jones, Kershaw writes a weekly column for marketingdirectmag.co.uk and the DM Bulletin.

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