This weekend Woolworths can’t wait to give everyone an opportunity to give them a massive kicking
Dr Mumbo is sorry to note that Woolworths has decided to kick off the weekend with a mini social media disaster in the making. Read more »
The new iPad. Coming soon. Or later
When he’s on the go, Dr Mumbo naturally uses his Apple device to access news.com.au to keep up with what Apple will be doing on the mobile device front.
And very informative it is too.
(Hat-tip: David Campbell)
The Sydney Mining Herald
So how would the Sydney Morning Herald look if Gina Rinehart gets full control? It would be the Sydney Mining Herald, for starters.
And there might be some subtle changes in the editorial direction which comedian Dan Ilic has helpfully interpreted… Read more »
The bear necessities of political writing
Dr Mumbo’s award for intro of the year goes to Crikey’s Guy Rundle for this item today:
“Down in Colorado, they have a problem with black bears. They’ll sometimes wander into populated areas, and they have long since ceased to be afraid of human beings. Indeed, they are wont to attack, in dark places in the city. Worse, the male bears when in rut, have been known to attack in an, erm, pretty intimate way — Read more »
I see dead campaigns
A subtle rebranding of Ideaworks, courtesy of B&T Today.
Kruger with a C
It always takes a while to get to know a new colleague.
But hopefully the staff of Nine’s new show Mornings will soon get the hang of how to spell Sonia Kruger’s name.
The golden rule
Dr Mumbo had been wondering whether some of the anti-Kyle backlash has been something of a metropolitan media confection.
But when these sort of posters start appearing in car repair workshops in Sydney’s Inner West, one does start to consider other alternatives…
As the poster sits at a Mazda service centre, fair to assume that Mazda will not be an advertiser on the Kyle & Jackie O Show in the near future.
(Hat-tip: BD)
Ledge of reason
Here’s some awkward ad placement:
And happily it’s a placement that works with virtually any news story…
(Dr Mumbo tips his hat at the four separate individuals who all spotted versions of this campaign…)
Sorry, you dumb fuckers
Apology of the day comes from The Suffolk Journal in Boston in the US, over an article published this week.
“In today’s issue of The Journal, we published an inappropriate sub-headline in the article “SLI Involvement Fair a success.” We want to apologize profusely for the mistake and make it clear that we in no way harbor ill feelings towards the Student Leadership and Involvement Office, nor any of the students and staff that work there. The sub-head was put in as a joke, by editors, that unfortunately slipped through our editing process later in the night. We want to make it clear that the reporter who wrote the article had no idea or anything to do with the subhead. We’ve spoken with SLI, who has been extremely understanding. We want to thank them for their support. Moving forward, we hope to learn from this experience and continue to do our best to keep the Suffolk community informed about what’s going on around campus and in the city. As always, thanks for reading the Journal.”
And here’s what they’re apologising for…
We have ways of making you post
Welcome to Things That Don’t Endear PRs to Journalists, part 567:
“The release and any news should be published Thursday at 9AM.”
It’s worth noting that Mumbrella did not publish the story at 9am today. Or indeed at all.
The empty chair
When the news story is all about the sad tale of a man whose green garden chair is now left empty, it may be more subtle not to serve a video next to it featuring an empty green chair.
Cross racial stereotypes off your list. The maid is of no particular race
Here’s an excellent idea for a promotion for Olay created by Arnold Furnace. Win a cleaner for a year.
Or, as Dr Mumbo’s correspondent puts it: “Relax white woman.. while Asian woman cleans your lovely home…”
Nine drops the F-bomb
Some splendidly panicky broadcasting from the studios of Nine News Perth.
And an excellent reminder from Ebbeny Faranda on why you should always treat the microphone as live…
Dr Mumbo understands the broadcast was about five weeks ago, on December 30 last year.
The news reader who can control the weather
It’s always convenient when reading a news story if the clouds behind you align…
In this case, Nine News’ Andrew Lofthouse was telling Queensland viewers about a crocodile.
Leave Alan alone
The media should leave the story of Alan Bond’s bereavement alone, argues Tracey Spicer.
In a 707 word article.
Z grade celebrity seeks flatmate
Remember Ben the marketing tosser with the worst flat in Bondi?
Dr Mumbo is happy to report that there’s also a media tosser in Surry Hills doing his copywriting thing on Gumtree:
I’m a dude and I live with 2 lovely ladies (22 – 28). We work hard and party hard. I’m gay and single so you probably shouldn’t be gay yourself as I’ll just get drunk and try to make a pass at you. Read more »
Tip Top. My mouth goes weird when I eat
Welcome to the first in what may be a very short series… what happens when two ads run together, brought to us today by Mix 106.5 in Sydney.
Today’s example… the new Tip Top ad, followed by an awareness raising message about anaphylactic shock.
Do delete
Some bright spark at Sydney’s Ai-Media has hit on a genius email marketing ruse.
Send out DM emails from the sender “DO NOT DELETE”.
Because that will of course deter the average user from deleting their messages as spam.
No doubt the lack of an unsubscribe option in the email is a mere oversight.
January 30 update:
Ping! The following arrives in Dr Mumbo’s inbox…
Dear Subscriber,
On Friday we sent you a message from this account with the sender’s name “DO NOT DELETE”. Contrary to some media speculation, this was not the product of a new ingenious marketing strategy for the Ai-Live 3.2 Launch.
We simply aren’t that clever.
The truth is, we stuffed up on a holiday weekend.
We are in the process of migrating email systems. This account had been marked up with ‘DO NOT DELETE’ as an internal device to ensure we did not delete it during the changeover. Friday’s comms was sent from an out of date template that also did not include the “unsubscribe” option. We failed to send a test email that would have identified the problem.
Please accept my sincere apologies.
And you are always able to unsubscribe by replying with “unsubscribe” in the subject line.
Yours sincerely
Tony Abrahams
Ai-Media, CEO



















