Stating the bleeding obvious about stating the bleeding obvious.

Another swipe of the axe today.

The government is to get rid of 287 advertising and marketing jobs as part of its spending cuts programme.

Staff numbers at the Central Office of Information (COI) will fall by two-fifths from 737 to 450.

The move follows a government freeze on "non-essential advertising", with the COI's budget estimated to have fallen by more than half.

Chief executive Mark Lund said the operation would become "leaner", but unions said they were "disappointed".

Staff are being offered the chance to apply for voluntary redundancy, although there are expected to be compulsory lay-offs.

The usual caveat here. I am a public servant and may well hear the swoosh of the axe myself before long, but the simple facts are that we are broke, the government is too bloated and too fond of interfering. I really do sympathise with the people who are now staring down the barrel.

It is hard to think of an area where this is more true than with government advertising.

The concept is an odd one, they take our money for a service, then spend more of our money telling us about the service they've taken our money to pay for. I would suggest that if they need to tell us about it, we don't need that service too much, otherwise we'd all be demanding to know where this service is.

Look at this one:

What's the message here? Don't eat crap, don't sit on your rapidly expanding arse all day long and you won't keel over at 40 after the Japanese harpoon you whilst you're walking down the street? Really? Is this vital information?

No, of course not. It is evidence of a government that just cannot help sticking its bloody nose in and trying to micro manage every aspect of our lives. We know this, and those that haven't made a connection between the tenth slice of chocolate cake and the small objects in perpetual orbit around their wobbling bulk are so stupid that the gene pool will not miss them all that much.

Let's have another, shall we?


Whoa! Hang on just a minute, do you mean to tell me that taking money I'm not entitled to is a crime, and if I commit a crime then I may end up in the land of the stripey sunshine? Has anyone told the MPs? There's also another favourite of the government in here as well, 'we're watching you'. A message you may remember from other government adverts like the one where your car is going to be crushed, because you've not given them money to piss away on advertising campaigns or when the TV licencing man calls round, because you've not given the BBC money to piss away on political and environmental indoctrination.

One last one:

Once again, stating the bleeding obvious. You can tell us all you like, the fact is that some twats (normally only a few years past the golden haired child who will be chasing the brightly coloured ball into the road) will always drive at 40mph at maximum revs down a street like the one pictured above because they are indeed twats, and couldn't care less. Browbeating the rest of us won't change this. A responsible driver doesn't need a speed limit (although I understand why they exist) on a road like this, because they will see the conditions and think to themselves, 'hmmmm, someone might step out here, best reduce my speed to minimise the risk of a collision if they do'.

Those that don't should have their licences taken away for driving like a clot.

And once again, another favourite of the government at the bottom. Telling us to be scared. No such thing as a safe road, best keep the kiddies inside.

Of course the problem with keeping the kiddies inside is that they can't move about like nanny says in the first advert.

Goverment advertising: Disjointed, stating the bleeding obvious, nannying, scaremongering, expensive and won't be missed at all.