In an early contender for Press Release Of The Week, the UK government’s Department for Innovation, Universities and Skills announced a new initiative to engage the public in science.  Science:  So What? So Everything is aiming to take us a step closer to a science-literate society.

So far, so good, and the campaign’s celebrity backers  seem more than credible, even to a cynical ex-PR like myself: David Attenborough, Ben Miller and Heston Blumenthal should have no problem convincing people that science is fun, exciting and relevant.

Time to check out the official site then… ah. A front page story entitled “Safe recycling of livestock manures“ may not have been a good call, and in the So: The Future section one article bigs up some neuroscience studies as Facebook science, while another defies visitors not to read it in the voice of Gok Wan.

The campaign’s own YouTube channel is more interesting: the videos feature a host of celebrities recounting their own scientific epiphanies. This is always a fascinating subject, and something every budding scientist will have experienced for themselves… so why, of all the videos which could have introduced the official site, did this one make it to the top of the playlist?

Excuse me while I hunt down my copper wire and pair of cables… granted the presenter is enthusiastic enough, and there isn’t a beard or an elbow patch in sight, but I don’t think the Blue Peter approach is the right one*. Even to a geek like me this seems a little dry, especially having seeing The Periodic Table of Videos do this kind of thing so much better. In going down the YouTube route DIUS have also missed a trick: all those Mentos and Diet Coke videos should have told them how to get thousands of viewers watching a simple science experiment, then trying it out at home.

I’m sure DIUS have their hearts in the right place, but I can’t help thinking they should have left this whole thing to someone else. Someone like The Wellcome Collection, whose first live heart surgery event was fully booked within 24 hours of its announcement. Or how about the Centre For Inquiry, New Humanist and The Skeptic, who have managed to fill concert halls and theatres (and pubs) with punters eager to hear some science talk? Maybe the team behind Bodyworlds could join in, fresh from an exhibition deemed popular enough to make a return to the UK, this time in a space as large as the O2 Bubble? Or the Science Museum’s Dana Centre, where latecomers to The Big Bang Machine couldn’t get tickets for love nor money. Perhaps CERN’s researchers should be invited to say a few words, given that coverage of the LHC switch-on was followed avidly by thousands of non-scientists…

Hang on, there seems to a lot of demand for this stuff… where’s this elite we keep hearing about, and how are the intimidated masses gatecrashing their party? Clearly these bloody big audiences are undeterred: perhaps all we really need is a bigger lecture theatre.

Here’s an idea: instead of funding a one-off PR push, why not just hand the cash over to our museums and universities and let them get on with the events themselves? They’re doing a pretty good job already, and would make the most of any opportunity to reach more people. An ongoing drive to make science accessible to all would have a greater impact than a one-off campaign telling us to get more science in our lives.

*UPDATE: Told you.