News of a spectacular victory for the legal profession - InjuryLawers4U, the personal injury marketing organisation for solicitors' firms, has picked up Marketing magazine's prestigious most-irritating TV commercial in 2006 award.


For those unacquainted with its delights, the InjuryLawyers4U commercial sees a sharp-suited client cross-examining one of its representatives about the benefits of the service. Putting the case against the ad, David Golding of advertising agency RKCR expresses his sorrow for daytime TV viewers. 'They have to be shouted at and have messages spoken, repeated and put up on the screen for them, before having the phone number literally flashed before their eyes,' he writes. 'But I suppose with a brand of ambulance-chasing lawyers such as this, the sight of things flashing generates a rush of blood to the head.'



Mr Golding admits that the ad is 'not completely formulaic', with the client portrayed as a bit of a shark rather than as a victim. 'It is almost a role reversal with the lawyer. I say almost because the lawyer is depicted as a smug, contented fellow who sleeps very well at night. So he should - he's at work when these ads are on, so never has to watch them.'



Leaping to InjuryLawyers4U's defence, fellow marketeer Simon Knibbs insists the ad employs 'classic direct-response techniques'. In particular he praises the advert's 'consistent call to action', and the way it reinforces the key benefit of the process and deals with the negative points.



In other words, it may be irritating in the extreme - but it works.