MOFA legal threat in PO poster fiasco

GGT media dependent Media Solutions is understood to have threatened More O’Ferrall Adshel (MOFA) with legal action after the scrapping of a poster campaign for Post Office Counters.

MOFA had accepted a poster campaign for its six-sheet bus stop sites, aimed at promoting Post Office sales of National Lottery Instants scratch cards. The card game was launched last week through 20,000 outlets – 9,000 of them Post Offices.

However, the poster’s creative work, which featured a large Instants card, fell foul of an exclusivity agreement between MOFA and Littlewoods Pools poster specialist IPM. The agreement prevents another gaming advertiser from appearing on MOFA sheetage when Littlewoods ads appear.

Similar agreements with other poster contractors restricted posters for the launch of the National Lottery last November.

“We are in discussions with MOFA. There were problems, but I have nothing to say on the matter,” says Media Solutions chief executive Julian Neuburger.

Post Office Counters marketing manager Alan Pennington confirms that the campaign has been pulled because of MOFA’s exclusivity clause with Littlewoods.

The campaign broke this week on radio and in the national press. There will be a national TV drive during April.

The move represents Post Office Counters’ largest ever campaign for a single product.

* The Council of Outdoor Specialists has written to the Outdoor Advertising Association’s new director Richard Holliday requesting a meeting between the two bodies for the first time in two years.