Posted on: February 2nd, 2010 by Jeremy Jackson Sytner

Have ever thought about Nelson’s column?

Most probably not.

Why?, is a good question.

Why put a statue of a national hero on a Corinthian column 151 ft high? After all it is just that, a statue, with Nelson standing a fairly modest 18ft tall head to toe.

(There are countless large statues throughout the world. Topping the list of giants is the Spring Temple Buddha in China coming in at an impressive 420 ft. Although the Maitreya Buddha, a 500 ft bronze statue, is being constructed in northern India will soon top that.)

Within a mile of Trafalgar Square there are hundreds of plinths with assorted national heroes and leading luminaries of their day. Nearly all of them at a height at which they can easily be seen and admired.

And it’s not as though Nelson’s column was part of a highly competitive statue building race. “I don’t care, just make it higher than that General on that 150ft  column over there!”

Someone must have said ‘this guy’s a bloody national hero. Forget using a 10ft plinth, get us something that will make every other plinths look feeble.’

What better way for a nation to say thanks but to raise his effigy into the heavens?

(They built a 144 ft high Nelson’s obelisk in Glasgow, a 121ft Nelson’s Pillar in Dublin, a 62ft high column in Montreal and a 144 ft high Nelson’s monument in Great Yarmouth.)

So what have all these column inches got to do with marketing?

Well there’s a lesson to be learnt here.

If you want to make an impactful statement, it seems you have to go the extra distance.