Adverts urging Scots to get their flu vaccine, check for symptoms of cancer, and warning of the dangers of drunk driving look set to be scrapped after ministers froze the budget for public service marketing for the remainder of the year.

Agencies working on the campaigns were told earlier this week that their services would no longer be required.

The Scottish Government said it was “a necessary decision to ensure we have a balanced budget."

But the Institute of Practitioners in Advertising (IPA) described it as a “short-term decision that could cause dramatic long and indeed short-term damage for the population at large, as well as to the economy.”

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There are also fears that the freeze could lead to redundancies in the sector.

One industry insider told The Herald: "Losing any income is clearly tough and will affect jobs. 70% of costs in agencies are people. There's very little elsewhere where you can cut."

They also said it was frustrating as the Scottish Government had only recently asked firms to bid for work.

"Why have they been tendering for big new contracts in the last few months? Agencies all spend time and effort, unpaid, to submit these tenders and there's bugger all happening. I mean, why the hell are they doing that? It's just wasting people's time."

Earlier this week, Deputy First Minister and Cabinet Secretary for Finance Shona Robison wrote to cabinet colleagues telling them “emergency spending controls will now be introduced with immediate effect”.

Money will only be allowed to go out from departments if it is essential to meet legal requirements or prevent an economic crash.

It follows ministers stepping in with extra cash for local government workers’ pay in a bid to avert strike action by refuse staff.

The 4.2% offered was substantially more than had been budgeted for.

There are also looming pay negotiations with nurses and junior doctors. Talks with the Royal College of Nursing are due to take place next week, with the union looking for the government to at the very least match the 5.5% offer made to colleagues in England.

Advertising agencies were told essential campaigns would be funded but there is still no detail on what campaigns the government deems essential.

Many in the sector are worried about what could fail to make the cut.

"Some of the work that agencies do is about informing the most deprived sectors of our community about core benefits that they're entitled to and core services that they're entitled to, and if you withdraw that communication you're actually going to directly impact people because they're not actually then accessing their benefits and especially when we've got cost of living crisis,” a source said.

“One would say, well, actually doesn't become a duty to try and actually make sure that that work continues?"

"We wonder if some ministers think marketing is frivolous, that it can be cut and doesn't really matter," they added.

Richard Marsham, group managing partner at the Leith Agency said the government needed to see marketing as an investment rather than a cost. 

“We've had cuts in the past, but we've never had everything on hold, and it's across every discipline.”

He added: “We work on detecting cancer early, we work on encouraging people to donate organs. We work on road safety. I mean, all these have a huge impact on the country in the wider sense.

“So just pulling it all feels to me a bit like a sort of a false economy.”

Paul Bainsfair, Director General, IPA said the industry appreciated the government was in a difficult fiscal situation, but warned that there would be consequences to the decision.

“From detecting cancer early, to mental health support, to road safety, to flu vaccinations, to nursing and teacher recruitment and organ donation - to name but a few, public service campaigns play a vital role in changing behaviours to improve the health of the nation and the economy, and in doing so reduce public costs over the long term.

“While we appreciate the challenging financial position of the current Scottish economy, we very much believe that halting spend to public service advertising is a short-term decision that could cause dramatic long and indeed short-term damage for the population at large, as well as to the economy.

“Furthermore, regarding the impact of this decision on the Scottish ad industry, given that the Scottish Government represents the single biggest advertiser in Scotland, any stops to public service advertising could result in a loss of jobs in the sector.”

Lib Dem economy spokesperson Willie Rennie said the sector needed more information: "I think most members of the public would rather see money spent on frontline services than advertising campaigns.

"However, it is important that the government doesn't end up shooting itself in the foot. For example cutting back on campaigns promoting preventative health measures could end up causing more problems for the NHS in the long run.

"The Scottish Government should say which campaigns are being paused and what assessment it has done of the effectiveness of each of its ads campaigns."

Scottish Labour Finance spokesperson Michael Marra said the blame for the freeze was "years of financial and economic chaos from the SNP."

He added: “The long-term consequences of axing important public health and safety campaigns could be devastating.

“Scotland cannot keep paying the price for SNP failure – the SNP must take responsibility for fixing the mess it has made of public finances.”

A Scottish Government spokesperson said: “The Scottish Government freeze on public sector marketing expenditure for the remainder of the year is a necessary decision to ensure we have a balanced budget.

"As both the First Minister and the Cabinet Secretary for Finance have made clear, tough decisions are having to be made across Government and the wider public sector to ensure that stretched resources are used economically, efficiently and effectively.”