The programme had dissected the IF campaign's strapline that a child dies of hunger every 15 seconds and found it wanting. The interviewer put to Lundie that this implied incorrectly that the children are dying from starvation.
His PR jargon about "top-line messaging" was compounded by an admission that they effectively dissembling to seek emotional support from the public. He ends up agreeing that the message has become too simplified and people are not correctly informed. Inter alia, that in order to get 'cut-through', you need to manipulate people because they're busy.
This is exactly the kind of response that does charity campaigning no good in the short term as audiences realise they are being manipulated by statistical sleights of hand. In the longer term, it tars all charities with the kind of spin they associate with politicians.
Listen here to the interview (scroll forwards to 6 minutes 13 seconds) .
Andrew Caesar-Gordon
