Get ready for Brexit was a campaign launched by the British government on 2 September 2019. It encouraged the public to prepare for the UK leaving the

European Union The European Union (EU) is a supranational political and economic union of member states that are located primarily in Europe. The union has a total area of and an estimated total population of about 447million. The EU has often been des ...

(EU) on 31 October. It ran across television, social media, billboards and other platforms and was the largest government public information campaign in British history.

Development

The Times ''The Times'' is a British daily national newspaper based in London. It began in 1785 under the title ''The Daily Universal Register'', adopting its current name on 1 January 1788. ''The Times'' and its sister paper ''The Sunday Times'' (fou ...

'' reported on 30 August 2019 that a taxpayer-funded advertising campaign was under development which would cost up to £100 million. An advertising industry source said that the figure was "substantially higher" than the amount spent on traditional advertising in the UK by brands such as

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and Asda in 2018. An order was placed for branded merchandise and there were claims that the government considered using the Vote Leave slogan 'take back control'. The campaign was developed by Engine Group who were appointed following

Boris Johnson Alexander Boris de Pfeffel Johnson (; born 19 June 1964) is a British politician, writer and journalist who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom and Leader of the Conservative Party from 2019 to 2022. He previously served as F ...

's election in the 2019 Conservative Party leadership contest. Manning Gottlieb OMD were hired to handle the campaign's media buying.

Launch

The Get ready for Brexit campaign went live on 2 September 2019, stating that the UK would be leaving the EU on 31 October and urging the public to visit a new website, gov.uk/brexit, to see what they needed to do to prepare for it. In announcing the campaign's arrival, Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster

Michael Gove Michael Andrew Gove (; born Graeme Andrew Logan, 26 August 1967) is a British politician serving as Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities and Minister for Intergovernmental Relations since 2021. He has been Member of Parli ...

said that "Ensuring an orderly Brexit is not only a matter of national importance, but a shared responsibility." The Get ready for Brexit slogan appeared for the first time on an advertising screen next to a John Lewis store at the Westfield shopping centre in Stratford,

East London East or Orient is one of the four cardinal directions or points of the compass. It is the opposite direction from west and is the direction from which the Sun rises on the Earth. Etymology As in other languages, the word is formed from the f ...

. An image showing one of the campaign's billboards was issued by the

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in the week beginning 2 September 2019.

Reception

#GetReadyForBrexit was the fourth highest UK

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trend on the morning of 2 September 2019. Pro-Brexit campaigners drew comparison with the leaflets delivered to every house in the UK during the 2016 referendum by

David Cameron David William Donald Cameron (born 9 October 1966) is a British former politician who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 2010 to 2016 and Leader of the Conservative Party from 2005 to 2016. He previously served as Leader o ...

's government in support of remaining in the EU. Further into September, a cross-party group of MPs led by

Liberal Democrat leader The Liberal Democrats are a political party in the United Kingdom. Party members elect the leader of the Liberal Democrats, the head and highest-ranking member of the party. Liberal Democrat members of Parliament also elect a deputy leader of ...

Jo Swinson wrote to Sir

Mark Sedwill Mark Philip Sedwill, Baron Sedwill, (born 21 October 1964) is a British diplomat and senior civil servant who served as Cabinet Secretary and Head of the Home Civil Service to Prime Ministers Theresa May and Boris Johnson from 2018 to 2020. He ...

, the head of the

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, condemning the Get ready for Brexit campaign as "redundant and misleading". They urged Sedwill to intervene to "make clear the UK is highly unlikely to leave without a deal" on 31 October 2019, saying: "A publicly funded campaign, encouraging businesses to be ready for the UK’s October no-deal exit, as well as being factually incorrect (as it addressed an event which could not occur) is inherently party political (as it cannot be government policy, but is Conservative policy), bringing the campaign into conflict." As the campaign did not acknowledge the

Benn Act The European Union (Withdrawal) (No. 2) Act 2019, commonly informally referred to as the Benn Act after the Labour MP Hilary Benn as Chair of the Exiting the European Union Select Committee who introduced it, was an act of the Parliament of the ...

, which rules out leaving the EU without a deal, it was described by opposition MPs as an election campaign rather than a campaign for public information. The pro-Remain group

Led by Donkeys Led By Donkeys is a British political campaign group, established in December 2018 as an anti-Brexit group, but which has also criticised other actions of the Conservative government. Since the group's creation its four founders have been callin ...

held a public competition to redesign the government posters, satirising the Brexit situation.

Conclusion

The advertising campaign continued throughout September and October 2019 even as it appeared increasing unlikely the 31 October deadline would be met. Around a week before the end of October it was reported the government had ended the campaign though this turned out to be untrue. The campaign was paused on 28 October, three days before the UK was supposed to leave, after Boris Johnson accepted the EU's offer to extend the withdrawal process until 31 January 2020. In January 2020, the National Audit Office reported that the government had spent £46 million on the Get Ready for Brexit campaign in October 2019. The auditors concluded that "it is not clear that the campaign resulted in the public being significantly better prepared".

References

{{Reflist, 30em

External links

Official website
Brexit British advertising slogans British political phrases (2000–present) 2019 in British politics Advertising campaigns Political posters of the United Kingdom 2019 in the United Kingdom 2019 introductions 2019 quotations