National Social Marketing Centre

A perennial favourite of social marketers and choice architects, the urinal fly, received two new makeovers this week.

So, the Department of Health has announced a year-long project to reduce violence towards staff in A&E by enlisting the help of designers. The Design Council has begun a search for designers to look at things like the layout of A&E, or introducing new furniture.

The government's 'Nudge' unit is back in the news after the launch of their recent paper on behavioural insight. And yet again the press are putting a strange spin on what they are trying to achieve.

The Indie published an article a couple of days ago, subtly titled 'Nudge, nudge, wink wink... How the Government wants to change the way we think', which carefully couched its appraisal in terms such as 'psychological tricks' and 'mental techniques' in order to describe the aims of the unit. Of course it's eye-catching and headline-grabbing stuff, but it doesn't give the big picture and it does smack of lazy journalism.