Good Creative to update poppy’s image

An interesting article in the Herald today. Initially I thought that the idea was to redesign the poppy, but it's actually about changing the image of the charity itself and how it is viewed by the public.


A leading Scottish design agency has been selected to help modernise the way in which the poppy, the symbol of remembrance of Britain’s war dead for almost a century, is viewed by the public.

Poppyscotland has commissioned Glasgow-based Good Creative to help change the image of the charity that supports ex-service personnel.

Poppyscotland wants to change the view the poppy is associated mainly with the two world wars and fundraising is a once-a-year activity.

Much of its present work is geared toward supporting veterans of recent and on-going conflicts, including in Afghanistan and Iraq.

The charity had intended to appoint a direct marketing agency to design a contemporary advertising campaign, but chose Good Creative as the preferred bidder, because of its original thinking and enthusiastic approach.

“We were extremely impressed with Good Creative. They quickly demonstrated they had a sound understanding of where our organisation currently sits and they presented the outline of an exciting theme for the 2011 Scottish Poppy Appeal,” said Fraser Bedwell, a spokesman for the charity.

“The new theme has the potential to be developed across a number of platforms and would fit perfectly with our year-round fundraising and charitable objectives.”

Good Creative, ranked by the Design Business Association as the UK’s third most effective design agency, said it was honoured to be asked to work on one of the world’s most distinctive brands.

“Wherever you go, people recognise the poppy and, in that sense, it is a remarkably effective symbol,” said Chris Lumsden, co-director of the agency. “Our task is not to challenge or change that but to make people think a bit more about what the poppy stands for in the modern world.”

The poppy was introduced in 1921 to commemorate British and Empire troops who died in the First World War. It inspired the poem In Flanders Fields by Lieutenant Colonel John McCrae, a Canadian military doctor. Poppies bloomed in the Flanders battlefields and their red colour was adopted to symbolise the blood spilled.