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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.
Lynx ‘clean your balls’ ad banned
The advertising watchdog has banned an ad for Unilever deodorant Lynx for demeaning older men – but was cleared of degrading both sexes, racism and bad language.
The part of the ad deemed unacceptable came at end, when an old man produced two deflated medicine balls and asks, ‘Can you help me with these saggy old balls? Nobody’s played with them for years.’
The ad received around 150 complaints from the public, not far off the total for the most complained about ad last year, which received 222.
One of the complaints to the Ad Standards Bureau read: “It is smutty and filled with crude innuendo of a sexual nature. It is not clever advertising but rather immature banter akin to schoolyard talk. It has nothing to do with the advertising of the product and is totally unnecessary and demeaning to men. If the topic was woman’s breasts there would be outrage. Not funny not clever just feral.”
Another reads: “The ad represents a huge gender double standard. If the product on sale was aimed at women for cleaning their intimate areas and the ad had men making suggestive comments and was packed full of the same overtones it simply would not be allowed in the first place. It would be impossible to imagine an ad featuring men washing objects that are portrayed as representing the vagina. So that said why should it be allowed in reverse?”
The ASB ruled that – with the exception of the depiction of the older man – the portrayals of the people in the ad were not offensive.
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Comments
16 Jul 12
1:35 pm
“The ASB ruled that – with the exception of the depiction of the older man – the portrayals of the people in the ad were not offensive.”
Hahaha brilliant. This will piss Melinda Tankard Reist and Collective Shout off enormously that it was the portrayal of the old man that got this banned and nothing else….!
16 Jul 12
1:35 pm
somebody remind me which one was the most offensive ad last year?
16 Jul 12
1:54 pm
So let me get this right…
The only complaint from the litany of vexatious complaints that was upheld, was the the old bloke was villified?
That was the bit my father in law actually blew his wine out of his nose laughing at!
I smell Commercial Shout in the majority of these complaints, but the sole complaint that was upheld was the one not under their pearl-clutching banner of “objectifying women, etc.” – that is hilarious. Naturally their website spins a different story. Even their Facebook page shows considerable apathy about the subject from their supporters. Sad, sad, self-justification.
When will Collective Shout learn that pearl-clutching wowserism is not really credible and that there really are issues they could focus their efforts on that will make a difference.
16 Jul 12
2:04 pm
Hi haha-nielson,
The most complained about ad from last year was Rip & Roll for Queensland Association for Health Communities.
Here is the list of others:
http://mumbrella.com.au/signif.....-ads-69418
Cheers,
Robin – Mumbrella
16 Jul 12
2:39 pm
Smutty? Crude? Schoolyard banter? Sure. That may be uncreative but isn’t against the rules — and probably plays to the target market.
As for reversing the genders on innuendo, does no one remember the playful “Beaver” ad in 2008, the 185 complaints against which were dismissed?
16 Jul 12
2:43 pm
Glad to see LYNX has re-edited the ad to take out the OLD man and continued to run it!
Keep up the good work
16 Jul 12
2:57 pm
I don’t know if this is in response to the ASB ruling, but Lynx have posted this response video to their YouTube: http://youtu.be/v5f_IqII-Ts
I kinda wish they’d run this video first, rather than the US reheat.
16 Jul 12
2:57 pm
Giant storm in a ball cup.
16 Jul 12
3:08 pm
Also, the Lynx ad you’ve embedded is the newly-expurgated version.
Anyone wanting to be offended can watch the original version here: http://youtu.be/hFvQqTBFe48
16 Jul 12
3:58 pm
Lulz to the Lynx response vid.
16 Jul 12
4:26 pm
I thought so too, AdGrunt – that’s why I posted it in the comments.
I thought it was an original video designed to capitalise on the Australian controversy, but no, it turns out that it’s another Aussie redo of the Axe campaign.
The US version of the press conference: http://youtu.be/DQbVqeXG9aI
16 Jul 12
4:56 pm
http://youtu.be/v5f_IqII-Ts
the Lynx press conference – this is soooo funny!!!
16 Jul 12
5:02 pm
Glad to see an edited version of this ad is back. Talk about a mountain out of a mole-hill.
16 Jul 12
5:13 pm
I’d love to get my balls cleaned by that chick. I’m disgraced that that is banned….
16 Jul 12
5:18 pm
Love the Lynx press conference. Cheers for linking Adam.
16 Jul 12
5:19 pm
I don’t get it; we are a strange mob; the public broadcaster can give us http://www.abc.net.au/tv/progr.....hjulia.htm At Home With Julia and it can be nominated for a couple of AWGIE’s – we can have the Kotex Beaver selling tampons, but and old man with saggy balls is demeaning. I just don’t get it.
16 Jul 12
5:36 pm
“If the product on sale was aimed at women for cleaning their intimate areas and the ad had men making suggestive comments and was packed full of the same overtones it simply would not be allowed in the first place. It would be impossible to imagine an ad featuring men washing objects that are portrayed as representing the vagina…”
So this person was complaining about an ad that hasn’t actually been made???
16 Jul 12
6:35 pm
The whole lynx ad is a copy of a 2010 ad campaign for Axe in the USA. See the original American version here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mPwhMoQBg_8
16 Jul 12
6:37 pm
why can’t an old guy have smooth balls? that’s ageist!
16 Jul 12
9:23 pm
Stoner Ad of the week!
17 Jul 12
1:43 am
An ad targeted directly at the teenage boys who make up approx 99% of the market who purchases Lynx.
17 Jul 12
8:47 am
This should’ve been banned Sophie Monk can’t act to save her life, and the AXE version was so much better.
17 Jul 12
10:53 am
Agree – excellent response from Lynx with the Press Conference.
17 Jul 12
1:41 pm
I don’t think there’s any reason to ban it except for the fact that Sophie Monk must have been out of her mind desperate to play this part. This is more embarrassing than offensive
17 Jul 12
1:49 pm
Question: How many people actually liked the advert vs the mere 150 that complained …
This is one of the most clever adverts we’ve seen in recent times … the fact that we’re talking about it now simply boosts the product awareness even more. Well done ‘offended minority groups’, since the beginning of time, you still haven’t realised that you are the missing link in creating something out of nothing …
P.S. If you’re offended … just grab that remote that resides in your hand and change the channel … apologies … was that a bit too obvious???
17 Jul 12
2:30 pm
@ Adrian
Not obvious, just outrageous. If the answer to offensive programming were to simply block it out of your life by changing channels, there would be no required standards in the first place.
As for the ad? It was, in my opinion, deliberately scripted and crudely directed, using a cast who were either allowed to overplay or didn’t know that they were overplaying, which brings the responsibility back to the director.
To claim “double entendre” (more correctly ‘double entente’ ) is in this case an amateur’s shield. The double entendre, used responsibly, should result in a word or phrase being used to explicitly avoid the risqué. In the case of this ad, the use was clearly, in my opinion, a collection, far too long, of deliberate sexual gags.
17 Jul 12
2:54 pm
Richard, you seem to be mistaken about Double Entendre / Double Entente.
Moreover, a quick viewing of “Are You Being Served”; any Bond film, any Carry On film, Paul Hogan show, etc. will demonstrate exactly how innuendo plays a rich and colourful part of culture.
Litmus test – would a 5 year old child get the gag?
17 Jul 12
3:06 pm
it doesn’t offend me as a woman, as I said I just feel sorry for Sophie making the choice of being in it. Each to their own I guess
17 Jul 12
3:26 pm
@ AdGrunt
Thanks for your opinion. I am not at all mistaken about any part of double entendre (entente) and I agree that the examples you have quoted will all, at times, demonstrate the part played by it in popular culture.
Your Litmus test? Most 5 year old children would get “fart jokes” but that doesn’t make them tasteful humour. The responsible use of double entendre (more properly double entente) would be expected to go above the heads of the average 5 year old.
Interesting that after a viewing of what is listed as the “original US version” I find that the ad, comes very much closer, in my opinion, to the spirit of double entendre or double entente. The direction is more towards a demonstration of ball cleaning, where much of the dialogue avoids the obvious.
The actor playing the old man, actually presents as a frail old man with old balls, and he make no reference to “saggy balls” or the fact that nobody has played with them for years. The power of “innuendo” is in what it doesn’t say, rather than what it says.
17 Jul 12
7:54 pm
Are you sure, RIchard?
Perhaps if you’re speaking to a French person of a “certain age”, but the Anglicisation is double entendre and the modern french phrase is double sens, or so my maid tells me.
You have affirmed my litmus test for a double entendre, that it would go above a 5 year old’s head. Thank you.
As for the performances and production values, I share your view.
18 Jul 12
9:33 am
@AdGrunt
Yes, I feel we are more in accord than not. I doubt that the words “double entendre” would mean anything to a modern French speaker who was unaware of the English usage. Double agreement or double hearing or double intent are all closely related but like so many Anglo/French shared expressions they are in a shadow.
None quite so appalling as “Elephant and Castle” or “Rotten Row”.
18 Jul 12
1:00 pm
Wow, gentlemen. All a bit high brow for moi. But back to the ad in question…my favourite scene involves the character played by Ms Monk kissing the map of Tassie on the trophy for winning the “Tasmanian International”.
19 Jul 12
1:08 pm
I thought the add was execellent
6 Aug 12
2:50 pm
Am i the only person who thought the advert was awful anyway? The joke, in it’s entirety was the word balls and the action of cleaning them. Not sure how they managed to draw that out over a 2 minute period. The only reason i was offended is that someone in a position of power at lynx and/or the advertising agency said yes to launching this sorry excuse for an ad.