British Gas goes Sicilian

This arrived through my letterbox today, though it may as well have arrived through my window tied to a brick.

Not content with staggering price rises and outrageous profits for its shareholders, it seems British Gas has diversified into running a protection racket. The delivery of the proposition is an insult to even the most ethically-loose advertising designer.

Whilst tugging at the heart strings with its use of stories of families being saved in a hand-made cut-and-paste genuine newspaper article aesthetic which is as semantically subtle as a sledgehammer in the face, it warns us that the solution to this invisible, un-smellable, un-tasteable killer is forking out for 'Homecare(TM) 100 for just £15 a month' which is just a subscription to boiler maintenance.

It finishes with 'Don't wait, sign up today and ensure you are protected.' In context it psychologically translates as 'your family might die in a nasty accident tonight. Give us money and we'll make sure that doesn't happen.'

Rather than pay them da money, I'd plump for a carbon monoxide detector for about £3 a year and check it.