Come on Law Society mugging just isn't funny

Go on, I challenge you, off the top of your head, quickly remember a joke that includes the subject of mugging that is ‘humorous’.

If nothing springs to mind you could always take a look at The Law Society’s latest campaign for inspiration ‘Don’t get mugged by an insurer use a solicitor’.  According to the blurb on their website apparently this campaign is designed to be ‘bold, humorous and memorable’.  I’ll agree with points one and three, but honestly Law Society, I think you need to elicit the help of a comedy advisor.

Mugging just isn’t funny.

If The Law Society’s alleged suggestion that insurers have been engaged in mugging is indeed correct, does that mean the legal profession has been living off of the proceeds of crime?  I say this because UK insurers represent one of the largest buyers of legal services in the UK.  It’s a pity The Law Society didn’t include this in the small print at the bottom of their campaign.

The mugging campaign is scheduled to last 6 weeks (from 24th June) and, as a marketer, I am really struggling to see how it will exponentially make a difference to their members’ financial wellbeing in the long term. 

The facts are clear, recent amendments to the law have changed the way personal injury claims are handled.  The old days and ways are gone.  Which I suppose kind of begs the question wouldn’t all of this effort and energy have been put to better use trying to help their personal injury lawyer members in other more sustainable ways?

The short term nature of the campaign as published on their website leads me to ask the question – who is the campaign really aimed at?  Is it the general public where lawyers have a deep intrinsic interest in ensuring that fairness and equity rules the day and that injured people get the right level of compensation, or is it the Law Society showing their members that they are doing something on their behalf?

Now I know it’s a flight of fancy, but just imagine if the UK insurer community took such umbrage at the campaign that it decided collectively to pull all work flowing to the legal profession, would this herald a campaign saying ‘Insurers are lovely great people to work with, please come back?’

The Law Society is absolutely right to try to represent their members’ interests. I guess my moan here is more about the style and manner in which it achieves this end.  Finger pointing, name calling is one way, but I’m sure in the long run, not the right way.  It may grab the headlines but as the old saying goes, it’ll be ‘tomorrow’s fish and chip paper’, what then?

Insurers and lawyers have enjoyed a good relationship for decades and divisive campaigns like this merely serve to undermine that fact.  They also forget the vital things that the UK general insurers do each and every year to help tens of thousands of people get their lives back together following a loss.  It also must not be forgotten that the insurance industry has been the provider of professional indemnity insurance to the legal profession for many years, without which Solicitors would not be able to trade.

In summary:

1.  Come on Law Society, more imagination and ingenuity please around helping your members prosper

2.  Insurers are not muggers

3.  Always use humour carefully, it’s highly subjective