NHS Direct has exciting new balloon - re-brandedNHS is due !! Hold back the crowds of grateful patients.. staff, consultants, car park wheel clampers

.... and you wonder where all those taxes go ? Well here's a little something they prepared earlier you might have missed in your busy day.

On 22nd July 2008 , Sheila Mitchell, the Department of Health's director of marketing, said the health service was ‘changing hugely'. She added that as the brand now covered a multitude of services, it was time to reassess it.

The announcement follows the unveiling of a fresh brand identity for NHS Direct. Thompson Brand Partners, the Leeds based brand communications agency, created the symbol following a strategic review.

The agency was appointed in January 2008 after a four-way pitch managed by the Central Office of Information's (COI) Publications team.

The blue balloon will now be used as part of NHS Direct's press and outdoor advertising, which runs throughout the summer. It will show the blue balloon in a series of real life situations; snapshots of our normal daily lives.

The campaign positions NHS Direct as being everywhere - whatever your health worries, wherever you are, you can reach them, they are there for you, they can help. ... the campaign intends to show that NHS Direct is everywhere ... now isn't there something faintly Biblical about that message ? Proverbs 15:3 The eyes of the Lord are everywhere, keeping watch on the wicked and the good.... let's hope our many ethnic / religious minorities don't find anything wrong with THAT message.

The supporting message is:

For life's little health emergencies
For help making the right choices
For health advice, right now
For reassurance, 24 hours a day

Thompson Brand Partners has introduced a blue balloon to the logo, as well as the line ‘We're here'. It will be used as part of a press and outdoor ad campaign to position NHS Direct as a fully accessible service.

Ian Thompson, Creative Directorat Thompson Brand Partners, added:

"A balloon is the perfect carrier for our message, it is optimistic, honest and approachable. Above all, a blue balloon is simple and iconic and works to get across our message that NHS Direct is everywhere."

They also go BANG !!!

Just in case you feel this is a fantasy here is the NHS Direct meeting minutes... approving the unknown expenditure

For meta analysis of the comprehensive nature of re-organisation that predicates this change and re-organisation please see Journal of the Royal Society of Medicine "A surrealistic mega-analysis of redisorganization theories " http://jrsm.rsmjournals.com/cgi/content/abstract/98/12/563 with thanks to the Jobbing Doctor

Regrettably we cannot furnish you with such a balloon (or even a picture of one) with or without the web address in the same font size as the telephone number.

Except if you access the NHS Direct website the front page does have this fine picture...


We trust you will agree this is all money very well spent. We couldn't find any others on the site ,even surprisingly on how to use a condom