The
television advert starts with the
fatal words: "Have you been hurt in an
accident in the last three years? If 'yes' then maybe Claims Direct can
help."
From this opening utterance the viewer is invited to recall incidents where they may have been injured or given some degree of discomfort.
In Amercia the emphasis on economic settlements to ease the pain of an accident is common. It is a phemonena that acts as a stigma for Americans and their culture. However here in Britain the tidal flow of suing specialists is modern, strange and extremeley entertaining.
I am not focusing on the politics of the legal trade but rather on the actual advertisement itself.
They present the audience with case studies. A selection of sad individuals who have had an affliction of sorts occur to them. One bloke was carrying a bucket of hot tar, fell and slipped and got £21,000 in compensation on a 'no win no fee basis'. Sounds good?
Well why does the camera crop and frame the image so that his arms, upper body and right side of the neck, shoulders and face are hidden? His face appears frozen like one who has suffered a stroke or severe nerve damage. The young lad is featured in an industrial background and yes the audience is shown sparks and wires thus indicating a dangerous and horrid place of work. The relationship drawn from these denoted images highlights the lower unskilled manuel worker.
Claims Direct are just one company in a whole brandspanking new genre of day time television advertisements that are aimed at the person at home. They feature a hope of compensation which will have an average of 70% taken off in their cut. Like bad dealers they have a few case studies that are not so tragic and victimesque and that have braved the British legal system and won!
So thats why they 'get to work'!
Hurrah! Hope for the working classes! Everyone knows to sue another person or group it takes loads of dosh and a long terrible procedure where the out of pocket expenses kill you before it makes it pass the clerk of the court.
So the British are now able to sue and get compenstated for their grief? How wonderful! Is it through a change in the legal justice system? No. Through hegemonic evolutionary traits of capitalism.