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Opinion | Features
Melissa Doyle is ready for prime time (but what does it mean for Today Tonight?)
It’s easy to be dismissive of TV presenters – particularly when they’re doing something as fluffy as morning television.
But today’s announcement of the departure of Mel Doyle from Sunrise is a reminder that it’s harder than it looks.
How bosses can build trust by baring themselves to staff
In this guest post, Simon Rutherford, CEO of Slingshot Media, argues that bosses should be vulnerable in front of their staff.
Winston Churchill once said: “Courage is what it takes to stand up and speak; courage is also what it takes to sit down and listen.”
Fake it til you make it...as a radio newsreader
In a piece that first appeared in Encore, Emily Hoskins from ARN tells us how to do her job.
What does a radio newsreader actually do?
A radio newsreader has to be switched on from the moment they sit at their desk. At the Australian Radio Network each journalist writes, researches, edits and reads their own news bulletins under tight deadlines – every 30 minutes during the breakfast shift and every hour after 9am.
Keith Reinhard on freedom to fail, winning back Maccas and how agencies can survive
In an exclusive interview in Cannes today, advertising icon Keith Reinhard, one of the founding fathers of what is now DDB Worldwide, talked to Mumbrella’s Robin Hicks about freedom from fear, his favourite ads of all time, winning back McDonald’s and why the most important thing in advertising is passion.Savage counsel - little white lies
In a piece that first featured in Encore, Chris Savage tackles your career and agency dilemmas. This week, he talks about when it’s okay to lie to clients.
Hi Chris,
I often find myself telling little white lies at work – I tell people on the phone that I don’t want to speak to I’m about to duck into meetings. I told my colleague her new haircut was great when really it wasn’t and I praised someone’s work when actually it was kind of shit. After each of these occasions, I felt pretty terrible and wonder if you could tell me how can I speak with candour in the future – for my sake and others.
How to build a culture
How important is a company’s culture and how do you ensure you are breeding a good one? Matt Smith investigates, in a piece that first appeared in Encore.When production companies Cordell Jigsaw and Zapruder’s Other Films merged early last year, bringing the staff together within the walls of the Zapruder building proved to be something of a challenge. While the two companies weren’t strangers to each other due to six months of talks and negotiations, working together on a full-time basis was a different story.
Q&A Damian Keogh
In a piece that first featured in Encore, Val Morgan CEO Damian Keogh reveals his potential alternate career.
Who is the most powerful person in Australian media and why?
I’d say Kerry Stokes, slightly ahead of Harold Mitchell and Kim Williams. He controls the entity with the largest revenue across free-to-air, online, magazines and newspapers. On pure size alone, his influence and leverage over advertisers, media agencies and consumers is unmatched. Harold is still the king in media, slightly ahead of John Steedman, but Henry Tajer and Leigh Terry are the heirs apparent. Kim Williams controls News and that’s a big base to work from.
If a violent game is okay, then so is using a violent ad to promote it
An ad for video game Dead Island Riptide was banned by the ad watchdog. James Whitehead of online entertainment publisher IGN argues that it was the wrong call.A fortnight ago, it emerged that the Ad Standards Board had banned a television commercial for the video game Dead Island: Riptide, due to its depiction of violence – specifically suicide.
Why content makers are leaving our shores
In a piece that first featured in Encore, Craig Anderson says there simply isn’t enough opportunity for content makers in Australia, especially for those making comedy.Last year I had multiple meetings with production companies in Australia and discovered that apart from the odd commercial campaign, there’s no proliferation of paying platforms for comedy. From my own experience there’s iView, which will buy content once it’s already been made (though I live in hope that it will one day be granted the financial power to commission content). I’ve also had the odd informal commission from the SMH iPad consisting of two narrative series and a comical review show. But none of these endeavours were financially viable.
Managing your management style
In an article that first appeared in Encore, Stephanie Brown says the advertising industry often leaves people ill-equipped when it comes to managing staff, especially when they’re promoted into management roles.Managing people is hard. In fact, I actually think it’s the hardest job in the world. With no disrespect intended, I often joke that if my job didn’t involve other people to manage, it would be a walk in the park. I could get about my day’s work in a nice, linear fashion, happily checking off my to-do list as I go. I’m a process-orientated person. I get a kick out of getting things done.
Why the Facebook chase is making brands treat consumers like morons
You know how we look back at quaintly patronising ads from the 1950s and wonder what on earth the advertisers were thinking?
I’ve got a feeling that in a few years time, we’ll be looking at the behaviour of big brands on Facebook the same way.
An entire generation of marketers – or at least a sizeable proportion of them – have lost their minds.
So many have become so obsessed with generating user interactions at all costs, that all thoughts about overall brand perceptions or long term marketing goals have vanished. All that counts now, is generating likes and comments at all costs.
Blog this!
Paid content, sponsored posts and brand ambassadorships – in theory, today’s blogger can be just as valuable to brands as mainstream media. But does blogger outreach actually work? In an article that first appeared in Encore, Nic Christensen investigates.“I get approaches from PR companies constantly,” says blogger and author Kerri Sackville, with more than a hint of exasperation. “I have never done a sponsored blog, on my own site, but that doesn’t stop them from asking.”
McLennan right man for job
It’s all change at troubled broadcaster Channel Ten with new directions, new executives and a brand new CEO. Managing director of Adstream Peter Miller says Hamish McLennan is the right man for the job, in an article that first appeared in Encore.I am a bit of a schmuck when it comes to movies. I love romantic comedies. My favourite is One Fine Day with Michelle Pfeiffer and George Clooney.
Q&A with Richard Herring
In a piece that first appeared in Encore, CEO of APN Outdoor Richard Herring talks media.Who is the most powerful person in Australian media and why?
I don’t know if there is one person in particular. The fragmentation of traditional media and new entrants has made it a more level playing field with regards to major influencers. As was demonstrated with the recent media reform recommendations, together, the broader media community still has a very influential and powerful voice.
What one medium could you not live without?
Outdoor – clean, entertaining, evocative and informative.
Q&A with screenwriter Craig Pearce
Craig Pearce, screenwriter for The Great Gatsby, spoke to Encore about working with Baz and writing for 3D.
How did you get into script writing?
I always loved stories and acting and dressing up and being anything but myself and I never realised that was not something other people did. After leaving high school, I did a three year acting course at NIDA but always thought I would one day write. Baz was a good friend and he had a theatre company. He wanted to extend a 20 minute version of Strictly Ballroom. We got it to 45 minutes then he was approached by producers to turn it into a feature film. I started helping him out on the film while they were looking for a real writer but eventually Baz had to go to the producers and say, “There’s this guy who’s my best friend and he is a really good writer”. To the producers’ credit, they believed in Baz so we had two weeks to re-write it.
Starlight ad takes away kids’ dignity
Charity advertising is generally bombproof when it comes to criticism, but I wonder if the Starlight Children’s Foundation has gone too far with the half page ad in today’s Sun-Herald.
It features two sad-looking children, both holding up hand-made signs saying “Choose me”, along with the heart-rending message: “With limited funds, we’ll have to choose which seriously ill child deserves happiness more.”
Yet my first reaction on seeing the ad is not the compassion one should feel, but anger at the emotional manipulation. By being asked to hold up the signs, it feels like the kids are being exploited in an entirely undignified way.
The fact that this is an organisation that recently helped spend nearly $15m on building a web site compounds things.
One can only hope that the kids in the images are actors.
Tim Burrowes – Mumbrella
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Comments
12 Apr 09
5:27 pm
A friend works for Starlight, we’ve had discussions about how difficult 2009 is going to be thanks to the downturn economy and the bushfire and flood appeals. Apparently they did it extremely tough after the tsunami and know exactly how detrimental a natural disaster can be. Obviously they have decided to ramp up their advertising to get their hands on some of the $900 that all retailers are vying for. I can understand how those involved would want a campaign that went for the jugular. I agree with you Tim, I’m not comfortable with the emotional manipulation but at the same time I hope it works.
At lunch today we started discussing charities and it was noted that the calls for donations were increasing. However we also noticed that in the cases when we’ve had to decline, the callers have been more than understanding. I know personally this has given me a bigger guilt trip then this ad ever could. I know when I’m doing a bit better again I’ll be donating twice as much next time they call.
12 Apr 09
8:17 pm
I agree with Tim, this is simply appaling. Has their power gone to their heads, are they trying to play God? Theoretically, what would the criteria be to choose one child over another and who would have this power? S
15 Apr 09
9:19 am
Tim
Absolutely agree – I had this discussion with my wife when we saw the ad in the newspaper that day. I wonder whether this ad might actually backfire and produce the opposite effect to that which was intended.
The approach was poor taste and exploitative – presumably asking the children to produce the signs and then “look sad” for the camera.
Without denigrating Starlight in any way, who are a wonderful charity and provide a very worthy service for the holistic care of children with severe medical conditons, they provide “distraction therapy”, not medicine.
15 Apr 09
12:18 pm
I agree, the advert is distasteful and upsetting.
I had a small brother with cancer and I’d hate to think what he would’ve thought if he saw that advertisement…
How would a child feel if they didn’t get their wish and were terminally ill? That they were not only dying but also not worthy?
15 Apr 09
12:57 pm
When everything in the paper is doom and gloom, I see this and I just want to turn the page faster.
The work that Starlight does is incredible and this ad does not do them justice. It does nothing to show me how Starlight brightens the lives of these kids.
I’d rather see the good that Starlight can do. Give me a REAL story. Give me an old-fashioned coupon in the ad showing what my money can buy me to help.
Tick the box, cut it out and send it in with a cheque.
Real stories and a coupon work harder than any guilt trip.
15 Apr 09
1:42 pm
*shakes head*
15 Apr 09
3:18 pm
They are an admirable organisation, but their board has some large personalities with “interesting” ideas.
It takes a strong hand to steer them from their wilder ideas and in this case that hand seems to have slipped.
Are GPY&R still their pro-bono agency?
15 Apr 09
7:03 pm
Sorry to be posting under ‘anonymous’ but…I worked at Starlight for a few years and had my soul destroyed by the people AdGrunt’s so aptly named ‘large personalities.’ Unfortunately they don’t seem to live in or understand the real world and use their work as a means of bullying people and bolstering their egos.
I too saw the ads and felt turned off but wrote those feelings off as sour grapes on my part so interesting that others have felt as manipulated and turned off as I did.
16 Apr 09
7:55 am
Emotional manipulation is the criteria of a successful ad.
For me the issue is whether the kids pictured are talent, or actually sick kids.
If they’re not talent, then this one’s a pretty murky grey area for me – as I think it’s a very powerful message. This one troubles me as it’s somewhat exploitative – I think it’s got a foot on each side of the line of acceptability. It’s a tough ad for tough times.
16 Apr 09
10:28 am
Adam
I agree most cause-related advertising, by dint of their business model, are emotionally charged.
However I can’t recall any charity of worth, let alone a kids charity, stoop to such blatant “give us your money or the kid gets it” emotional blackmail.
Starlight is / was a happy, positive organisation that prided itself on bringing happiness and relief via distraction therapies. They did some lovely ads last year which have been around a while. This is an ugly turn for the worse.
Anonymous – feel good about the great work you did, in spite of the personalities.
The proof will be in the donation pudding…
16 Apr 09
1:24 pm
I think we’re in agreement Mr Grunt. This ad troubles me – although not as much as the Child Abuse stuff on Gruen did last night. And on those ads – commenting in Creative Choice in AdNews, Emil Vrisakis from Spin quoted disgusted child abuse survivors who absolutely hated the commercial (any chance of a link please Tim?)
I think the Starlight donation pool will be as eagerly awaited as the sales results from Naked’s Fake Jacket Girl.
16 Apr 09
2:30 pm
Whilst I agree that emotional manipulation is part of every ad campaign, this just feels very distasteful. Starlight don’t use actors they use “real” sick children. There is no way this ad would make me want to donate. We have to ask don’t we…… why are they in such a financial crisis? Have other charities had to resort to such tactics?
16 Apr 09
2:50 pm
Hi Adam,
Unfortunately I can’t offer a link to the AdNews piece because their current model for their site is a paid subscription one.
By the way, I’ve noticed that some people with Starlight email addresses have joined our newsletter mailing list in the last 24 hours or so, so I guess they’re aware of this conversation. Hopefully somerbody from the organisation might choose to post a comment and let us know a little more about this one.
Cheers,
Tim – Mumbrella.
16 Apr 09
3:37 pm
Short term donation results might be one thing – long term brand damage may be another. This execution is so at odds with the organisation’s ethos and mission of “fun therapy” (to steal Camp Quality’s line), that is hard to imagine that any good will come from it. We simply cannot reduce the measures of success to one dimension of “did it provoke a response?” if you also disenfranchise a large proportion of the audience.
For some brands we should never confuse effectiveness and controversy. In this case you can see how the agency’s objectives can be misaligned to the client’s (even though they approved it presumably).
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