THE NHS has been named Britain’s best brand by the UK advertising industry.
The honour is usually handed out to grocery, technology or other consumer favourites.
But this year the health service has rarely been out of the news.
And judges of the annual awards, given by trade journal Campaign, said the public’s weekly doorstep applause — joined in by politicians and celebrities — plus painted rainbow signs in windows, was the kind of publicity companies would pay a fortune for.
The NHS beat social media phenomenon TikTok into second place with Tesco in third for the way it handled the Covid crisis early on.
Campaign said: “Brits have always had a special place in their hearts for the NHS but this year — as the service battled Covid — the brand’s national treasure status has scaled new heights.
“Two of the strange but uplifting sights during lockdown were the hand-drawn rainbows and the spectacle of whole streets coming out to clap frontline workers.
“When, following his brush with Covid, Boris Johnson paid tribute to the service as being ‘powered by love’, it was arguably one of the few times this year that the PM’s rhetoric hit the spot.”
TikTok was described as “the social media of the moment” after its popularity rocketed from 5.4million adult UK users in January to 12.9million by May.
Tesco was praised for its positive contribution as one of the first brands to promote in-store social distancing measures.
Netflix and Just Eat also made the top ten for the way in which they became essential to millions of Brits locked down in their homes for long periods over the most testing of years.
