Should’ve gone to Barnard Castle

The Great British public is entered in to one of the UK’s most prestigious industry awards

 THE Great British public has been entered in to one of the major advertising and marketing industry awards for its humorous and ingenious response to the Dominic Cummings driving affair.

It took only minutes after the press conference on Monday 25 May, when Cummings revealed he had driven to Barnard Castle to test his eyesight, for social media to be flooded with memes, tweets and humorous comments, including variations on the well-known ‘should’ve gone to Specsavers’ tagline.

The ‘should’ve’ social conversation was so widespread following the news of Cummings inadvertent trip to the Durham tourist attraction, that Specsavers saw an increase in online mentions of 6,000%* and were trending on Twitter. In the immediate aftermath, Specsavers mentions in mainstream media rocketed, with more than 200 pieces of coverage, including items in the MailOnline, the Guardian, Telegraph, ITV1, C4 and Sky News, with various people debating the benefits – or otherwise – of testing eyes via a road trip.

The wit, creativity and sheer amount of posts inspired Specsavers to do something that no other brand has ever done before, and enter the British public and its amateur comedians, designers and marketeers into the prestigious Marketing Week Masters Awards in the category of Best Social Media campaign of the year. The entry will go head to head with Specsavers own social media campaign it ran last summer to support its sponsorship of the Ashes, along with campaigns from other brands.

Specsavers Global Chief Marketing Officer Katherine Whitton says: ‘We’re known for our quick and humorous responses to all sorts of situations, but the public’s speed and ingenuity in responding to the Cummings affair left us standing. We love the fact that the Great British public feels a real sense of ownership of ‘’Should’ve’’ and instantly thought of us when it came to eye tests. To say a huge thank you for entertaining us so much with the nation’s humour and creativity, we wanted to recognise the efforts by entering the Great British public in to one of the most hotly contested marketing industry awards for excellence.’

Social media users have repurposed Specsavers’ iconic advertising line many times before, with notable examples including the 2017 Oscars furore – when the wrong winning picture was announced – and countless cases of sports-generated humour, such as their award-winning response to the request by England cricketer Ben Stokes to give his team mate Jack Leach free glasses for life during last year’s Ashes series.

*Brandwatch May 2020