It begins during Only Fools and Horses and can be seen during Jerry Springer, Questions and Answers and a film called Judical Consent. It is the glossy new TV campaign launched last night by the main secondary teachers' union to remind us that teachers are good, hard-working folk who might just deserve the 30 per cent pay increase they are demanding.
The cost of the campaign, which will run over the next month on RTE, TV3 and TG4, is being protected with a wall of silence at the Association of Secondary Teachers, Ireland (ASTI) but industry sources estimate that the final bill will be about £150,000. It appears to be aimed at a target audience with very catholic tastes: some ads appear during sensible fare like Questions and Answers and Fair City but others are pencilled in for some of TV3's finest, including Jerry Springer and Bad Girls, a drama series based in a women's prison.
The advertisement makes no mention of vulgar concepts like pay claims, arbitration, relativities and so on. Instead, it is dominated by soft-focus shots of "Diarmuid" and other pupils being cajoled by conscientious teachers who can unlock their potential. One chap who looks a bit of a hard chaw is reassured by a teacher who says he can see his artistic side. In another shot, the camera lingers majestically across an exam hall. And a voice - familiar to anyone who has spent some time in the classroom - advises: "Read the question carefully, the key to the answer is often to be found in the question". The stylish 30-second film ends with the slogan "Teachers teach more than you know", as a virtual dictionary of words - all describing the multi-faceted role of the teacher - explodes on to the screen. The modern teacher is described as a counsellor, psychologist, mentor, carer, motivator, diplomat, coach and leader. After all of that, a fair-minded citizen might wonder if we are paying teachers enough. Which may indeed be the point.
The campaign, unprecedented in this State, begins as the ASTI prepares to press its case for the 30 per cent pay rise at an arbitration hearing tomorrow. In fairness, it is also an attempt to arrest the worrying decline in teaching numbers as students are attracted by other, more highly paid options. The association's new president, Mr Don McCluskey, thinks it is all money well spent: "Education is the Irish economy's single most important competitive advantage. The need to recruit high-calibre people to the teaching profession in a highly competitive market for educated people cannot be underestimated."