Lobby Lud

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It has been suggested that this article or section be merged with You are X and I claim my five pounds. (Discuss)

Lobby Lud was a fictional character invented in 1927 by the Westminster Gazette, a British newspaper, now defunct. The name derives from the telegraphic address of the newspaper ("Lobby, Ludgate").

Anonymous employees of the newspaper would visit seaside resorts. The newspaper would print details of the town, a description of the appearance of that day's "Lobby Lud", and a particular pass phrase. Anyone carrying a copy of the newspaper could challenge "Lobby Lud" with the appropriate phrase, and receive the sum of money.

Other newspapers such as the News Chronicle and the Daily Mirror ran similar schemes - "You are (name) and I claim my five pounds", the most well-known challenge phrase, seems to date from a Daily Mail version which ran after the Second World War.

Holidaymakers were less likely to buy a newspaper, and since claimants for the prize had to have a copy of the newspaper, the newspaper proprietors hoped the prizes would increase circulation.

Another motive was to maintain circulation levels and keep people in the habit of buying the paper while they were on holiday. Some towns and large factories used to leave on "holiday fortnights"; the town or works would all decamp at the same time. Circulation could drop considerably in the summer.

The Daily Mirror's "Chalkie White" continues to visit resorts, and the idea has been taken up by local radio stations and other media (often offering lesser prizes). Chalkie White is the name of Andy Capp's closest friend in a long-running Daily Mirror cartoon strip.

Graham Greene's Brighton Rock uses a Lobby Lud character (called Kolley Kibber) as a plot device.

The device also appears in Agatha Christie's Poirot, The Jewel Robbery at the Grand Metropolitan, as the title character Hercule Poirot is mistaken for the man in the newspaper contest while he's on holiday at the seashore.