What Price a Poppy?

Each year, we join together to commemorate war dead and remember those killed by conflict.  Here in the UK, this national community event is driven by The British Legion and its Poppy Appeal.

The marketer in me stands awestruck at the success of this 90-year old social marketing campaign.  It doesn’t simply raise money for UK servicemen, women and their families, it makes us all stop and think – together – every single year.

What else does that?

Like all the best social marketing campaigns, it started with an ethical idea and wish to improve the lives of others.  The founder, Major George Howson MC, sought to provide meaningful work to those disabled during the First World War.  As I’m sure you’ve gathered, he was not a marketer.

We all recognise what’s right when we see it, and social marketing campaigns are those that illuminate it for us (ah hem, 5 a Day anyone?) in a clear, connected, direct way.  The poppy is extraordinary, started for the First World war and now invoking thoughts of combatants and civilians, killed by war, the world over.

The 21^st century poppy is a clear symbol that connects us back to the killing fields of  Flanders.  Through it, we continue to be connected to those who die by war and directly to those who survive it and make our poppies.

In those quiet moments, we think of those who died prematurely in horrifying circumstances, and are united in our humility and humanity.

If you do not succumb to this marketing campaign, shame on you.

Do you agree each poppy is priceless?