Moira Stewart to star in tax ads
Monday, September 29th, 2008
Moira Stewart is to be the new face of HM Revenues and Customs’ tax campaign.
The former BBC News presenter will take over from TV historian Adam Hart-Davis, who has fronted the HM Revenue and Customs’ self-assessment advertising campaign for six years. He told the BBC in February that he would soon be replaced by a “new and more beautiful face”.
“It is great news that Moira’s fronting our self-assessment campaign. She’s a household name that people naturally tune in to and trust,” said HMRC head of marketing Simon Vessey.
The new televised ads, which begin next week, will see Stuart popping up in unexpected places to remind people of the new deadlines for tax returns – 31st October for paper tax returns and 31st January for online tax returns. She will also appear on billboards and posters, in magazines, newspapers and online ads. Hart-Davis’s catchphrase “tax doesn’t have to be taxing” will remain.
In spite of the slogan, Hart-Davis admitted to Radio Five Live that VAT could be “absurdly complicated”, but said that he fully supported the tax system, and that starring in the self-assessment ads had been “huge fun”.
Moira Stewart worked at the BBC for 30 years and was highly respected as a presenter. In her last role, she presented the news on BBC1’s Sunday AM, but lost that slot in the March last year. Veteran presenters including Jeremy Paxman, David Frost and Terry Wogan campaigned to keep her, but to no avail. Stewart, aged 59, claims she was the victim of ageism.
