BOE Looks to Jamaica Central Bank Reggae for Communication Ideas

(Bloomberg) -- The Bank of Jamaica‘s videos of reggae stars singing about inflation targets and the Federal Reserve’s monetary policy comic books are among the more unusual central bank communication strategies being studied by the Bank of England.

A working paper co-authored by Chief Economist Andy Haldane published Friday found that engaging with a broader audience through “simplified communication may, alone, be necessary but not sufficient.” Instead, the economists said that complementary efforts in engagement and education are required.

The public backlash from the financial crisis and the more complex policy tools that followed have prompted central banks across the globe to take a closer look at how they present their strategies. Previous research by BOE economists has found the language used in their reports and speeches outstripped even the works of Charles Dickens and Thomas Hardy in its complexity.

The impact of efforts such as those of Jamaica’s central bank -- which produced a series of videos featuring singers and dancers telling viewers that if inflation is “too high the people have a cry and if it’s too low the country nah grow” -- are hard to measure, the BOE research found. Different objectives may require specific communication strategies.

Even so, “success should not be measured by the ability to reach everyone, but rather by engaging even limited audiences beyond the current small core of technical specialists and information intermediaries,” it said.

Read more: No Inflation, No Cry. Jamaica Turns to Reggae to Promote Target

To contact the reporter on this story: Lucy Meakin in London at lmeakin1@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Paul Gordon at pgordon6@bloomberg.net, Brian Swint, Jill Ward

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