Carrspace cops a bashing in the social space
It seems things keep lurching from bad to worse for experiential agency Carrspace – which was behind Woolworths ill-conceived Anzac #freshinourmemories campaign.
After having to pull the campaign website following a public outcry at how crass it was it appears the real Carrspace website has gone offline with a message “Bandwidth limit exceeded” – making Dr Mumbo wonder if it is the victim of a denial of service attack.
After copping a bashing on Twitter yesterday the inevitable happened, and someone launched a spoof account @carrrspace with a profile reading: “Formerly @carrspace, more like car crash! #amirite Proud creators of#freashinourmemories campaign.”
In reply to one tweet naming Carrspace as the agency behind the campaign the fake account tweeted: “to our credit, we nailed the pitch! We only used ‘engagement’ 73 times and even used the hashtag #brandzacday #nailedit”
@manaz_d @daspex to our credit, we nailed the pitch! We only used ‘engagement’ 73 times and even used the hashtag #brandzacday #nailedit
— Carrspace Creative (@carrrspace) April 14, 2015
And promising to “deal with your queries here” after the real agency had referred all inquiries to Woolworths:
Pussies! We’ll deal with your queries here and tell you exactly what they’re thinking, not what they’re saying https://t.co/vC7F4Lo2hv — Carrspace Creative (@carrrspace) April 15, 2015
Then of course there’s the cartoonists getting in on the action, with Peter Broelman jumping on the farce imagining what the Gallipoli campaign might have been like if it was sponsored by Woolies: And someone with a bit of time on their hands has reworked the scene from movie Downfall where Hitler loses his cool – with Adolf in this scene representing Woolworths CEO Grant O’Brien:
Dr Mumbo can’t help but wonder if the reaction around the Woolies offices yesterday morning might have been fairly similar to that.
It’s hard to know if Carrspace will get everything they deserve, but they will certainly come close. Meanwhile lets hope that the people involved at Woolworths get theirs too. Not just a couple of juniors, all of them.
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Carrspace have gone underground. Hmm.
They should now publish the brief they were working to. Did woolworths actually ask for what they got. Be interesting to know.
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It was a horrible idea, badly executed. But someone at Woollies gave it the greenlight and that had to be someone with a certain level of responsibility. There’s a lot of blame to share around on this one.
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The agency blames its client for making the decision to run with the idea. It also thinks it ok as bars in rsl clubs make money from beer sold on anzac day. The truth is that this money is then spent to help others. They are getting a hammering on their Facebook page. The public have spoken about the distasteful nature of their work. Where is the open and public apology from the agency? They are too busy hiding and blaming their client who has to deal with the abuse I saw this morning in my local Woolies. The damage will run into millions.
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Whoever uploaded this parody, dude, you are awesome.
You should work in advertising, or something……, oh, I guess you used to …. Before you got kicked to the kerb and replaced by a 19 year old that learnt SM by using MySpace in their bedroom as a 10 year old…
Am I right?
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Hm. Starting to all look a bit witchhunty. Yep a dumb, amateurish idea. They deserve some stick. But this coverage is starting to get tinged with a familiar ugly glee. Not so different to the lack of empathy shown by Carrspace, really.
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The agency got a brief, I assume they spent weeks developing this stuff. The client signed it off. It’s Woolies issue.
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