The Get On Gremlins

Region

United Kingdom

Associated With

Department for Education and Skills - commissioner

Defining Feature

Grotesque Gremlins taunting adults over everyday reading, writing and maths mistakes

Status

Discontinued - wider Get On media campaign and helpline ended in 2010

Overview

The Get On adult-skills Gremlins taunted adults over everyday reading, writing and maths mistakes.

Commissioned by the Department for Education and Skills as part of Skills for Life, the campaign placed grotesque creatures beside adults struggling with spelling, reading or calculations, then directed them towards free courses and advice.

Get On launched in Birmingham in August 2001, followed by national television and radio promotion in September. Its creative treatment evolved through later campaigns, while the wider media campaign and helpline continued until 2010.

Why It Mattered

The Gremlins turned anxieties about basic skills into memorable characters appearing across television, radio, newspapers, posters, leaflets and locally adapted advertising. By September 2006, official monitoring reported 93% public recognition and evaluations indicated up to 350,000 contacts with the associated advice line.

That visibility also made the approach contentious. Critics argued that the creatures risked ridiculing the adults the campaign hoped to reach, and one television execution was restricted to after 7.30 pm following complaints that it frightened young children.

Launch and Campaign Timeline

• Get On was publicly launched at Aston Villa football club in Birmingham on 30 August 2001.
• The long-term national television and radio promotion began in September 2001.
• A new campaign wave focused on workplaces and qualifications from August 2004.
• The wider national media campaign and helpline ended in 2010, although the last use of the original Gremlin designs is not known.

The Gremlins in Action

• Confirmed advert scenarios included a mother asked to spell “choir”, a carpet-measuring mistake and a nervous karaoke participant unable to read the words.
• The campaign appeared on television and radio, in national newspapers, posters and leaflets, and through local material including bus tickets, beer mats and bottled water.
• Later stages increasingly emphasised benefits, successful learners and people disposing of their Gremlins.
• BFI Replay catalogues the preserved 2003 campaign film Adult Basic Skills: Entrance.

Organisation, Spending and Response

• The Department for Education and Skills commissioned the campaign, St Luke’s Advertising developed the Gremlin approach, and learndirect managed the promoted national advice line.
• The £26 million reported by the National Audit Office covered the campaign, evaluation and associated local awareness activity, not television advertising alone.
• The OECD later reported more than 370,000 helpline contacts and said follow-up research found that 26% of callers took up learning opportunities.
• Reach and response figures do not show that the advertising alone caused qualifications or wider Skills for Life outcomes.

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