danleach.co.uk

…I’m guessing you weren’t one of the 472 people that picked Lorrain Kelly or Fern Britton.

According to Real Holiday Reports.com Lorrain Kelly is the top woman men want to run suntan oil on! Yes really. Even better is that Fern Britton came in 3rd beating the likes of Angelina Jolie, Halle Berry and Keira Knightley.

Lorraine Kelly 23.6%
Kelly Brook 23.4%
Fern Britton 14.8%
Angelina Jolie 13.6%
Halle Berry 12.8%
Keira Knightley 11.8%

I’m not going to go into the validity of this poll although it does raise eyebrows, but look at how effective these types of surveys are.

The poll or survey has been a mainstay for PRs for years, relied upon often when creativity hits a brick wall. Unfortunately survey-use reached saturation some time ago and journalists have the verbal equivalent of auto-reply in the form of “send me an email” when the poor PR mentions the phrase, “We have carried out a surv…..”…*click*.

Surveys and polls can work if they are newsworthy but it’s Russian roulette if your banking on a hypothetical, tongue-in-cheek angle such as the one above. If it’s a slow news day you’ll get a snippet, if a canoeist goes missing for a few years you have no chance.

Surveys shouldn’t be forever forgotten, there is certainly a time or place for them but in a time when marketing budgets are being cut PRs have an obligation to ask if YouGov is the best use of their clients’ pounds and pence.

I’ll scan the tabloids tomorrow to see if Lorrain Kelly gets a look in but one thing’s for sure, Fern will be furious!