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Opinion
Women don’t need special treatment
“I fail to see why women are obliged to compete in the intellectual equivalent of the Paralympics.”
A Cat In A Tree argues that the Social Media Women group will not help the feminist cause
Libra ad wins the online lads’ vote
While Mumbrella has not been a fan of the new ad for Libra Invisibles by Clemenger BBDO, it’s fair to say that a portion of the video viewing public is. Read more »
Was Vega a flop or just ahead of its time?
It was a sad day for DMG Radio yesterday when it was forced to hammer the final nail in the coffin of its baby boomer Vega stations.
I remember writing about the launch of Sydney and Melbourne stations back in August 2005. It has now become a sad irony that the radio network was named after the brightest star in the constellation Lyra. Read more »
Thinking caps and boxing gloves
So how much is a new idea worth?
I ask that because last night it came up in conversation with a member of the digerati when I asked him if he was going to next Wednesday’s Battle Of Big Thinking. Read more »
What sex on the beach has in common with foolish tweeting
Remember the woman who was arrested for having sex on the beach in Dubai and nearly went to prison? I used to work with her.
And I think the experience she went though has more in common with the pitfalls of social media than may be immediately obvious. Read more »
The ABC’s Australian Story – brought to you by Head & Shoulders
The screengrab below may not look like much, but it shows the historic moment that a TVC first ran next to ABC content. Head & Shoulders had the honour of advertising next to the flagship Australian Story. Read more »
A “Visionary” in Press release Writing (with random Capital letters)
Some days I get a couple of hundred emails, many of them press releases. Fair to say, not all are necessarily tailored for Mumbrella’s readers. This is one of them from today, with its own unique punctuation, language and grammar left as presented. Can anyone help me out with a translation? Read more »
20:20 foresight
“The cancer of television audience erosion cannot be cured by the morphine shot that digital television provides. The cure for media companies is an engaged and well-funded multiplatform digital strategy.”
PR fakes, doorstep interviews, smoking gun emails and current affairs shows
Wednesday night saw an interesting PR story appear on both Nine’s A Current Affair and Seven’s Today Tonight.
PR man Jothy Hughes was caught hiring actresses to pretend to be angry divorcees selling their jewellery, for an item about a cash-for-gold company. Read more »
In case you haven’t noticed, CommBank is starting to nail its digital marketing
I’ve been impressed with Commonwealth Bank’s gradual efforts over the last year or more to ramp up its digital marketing. Read more »
Kmart’s Anzac Day backflip was good PR in action
While I’ve no idea what went on behind the scenes, it looks to me like Kmart’s rapid backflip regarding opening on Anzac Day is a classic of good crisis PR. Read more »
The ABC is not for sale
“The vigorous pursuit of commercial agendas by some of our media rivals is allowing the facts to be sidelined in pursuit of a good story. There is a concerted attempt to portray the ABC’s role in the media as solely that of a niche provider – participating only in sections of the market not served by the commercial sector.”
What’s the point of papers printing corrections if they don’t own up to the mistake?
There is a dark journalistic art known as the correction.
It may appear to readers as an example of transparency on the part of the newspaper when those short paragraphs pop up clarifying some apparently minor matter. It’s not. Read more »
Merrick’s time may be up
Last week’s ratings saw a slump for Nova’s new breakfast show featuring Merrick Watts with Scott Dooley and Ricki-Lee Coulter compared to the previous Merrick & Rosso and Kate Ritchie version. In this guest posting, Simon Corbett argues that it’s time for Merrick to call it a day.
There is a wonderful line spoken by Morgan Freeman in the movie ‘Million Dollar Baby’ when he talks of the end of his boxing career “Everybody’s got a particular number of fights in them – nobody tells you what that number is.” Read more »
Google’s next move: free sites and domains for businesses
Most weeks, Google makes an incremental move that seems, in retrospect, obvious. Read more »
The wacky Aussie psychologist ‘with a penchant for insanity’
Fair to say that Adam Ferrier’s undercover investigation into the Scientologists has resulted in mixed commentary on the Naked Communications supremo’s exploits.
So far, the most unusual take on events is this one, on the website Rant Rave:
“A wacky Australian Psychologist has launched a bigoted and underhanded blog attack on religion and the nation of the USA.
“The Aussie ‘Psycho’, pseudonymously known as the Fiddler, normally exercises his penchant for insanity by such things as ‘testing’ an erectile dysfunction clinic, and writing about his experiences on his blog.
“Confirming Australia’s reputation as a nation of criminals, founded by criminals, for criminals, the Fiddler has now turned to trashing a Church and the people of the USA in his hilarious blog.
“Fraudulently presented himself at the Australian Church of Scientology as a member of the public, when in fact he is a long-time Psych, the Fiddler infiltrated the Australian Church to take a free personality test.”
For once, Dr Mumbo finds himself on Ferrier’s side.
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THE MUMBO REPORT
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In today’s Mumbo Report from Studio 33:
- Most played ads of the week – from fixing windscreens to selling potatoes
- The Nescafe turkey – ads for people who are scared of the internet
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Latest News
- Westpac to launch online bank brand
- Fairfax boosts circulation of Sport & Style in anticipation of rival launch
- F1 coverage lifts Ten's digital channel ratings
- Cherry Picked latest to target Sydney fun-seekers
- Huggies refreshes 'Hugs' brand campaign
- Solar Shop awards Clemenger Adelaide ad account
- Chicken brand Steggles undergoes brand makeover with $8m marketing push
- Mumbrella's free events board upgraded
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Latest Comments
- PR Slut on Westpac to launch online bank brand
- Hugh Fern Whittingly on Chicken brand Steggles undergoes brand makeover with $8m marketing push
- Max The Agent on Nando’s goes Bingle free
- Matthew Delprado on Mumbrella’s free events board upgraded
- mumbrella on Mumbrella’s free events board upgraded
- Snake Gallagher on Westpac to launch online bank brand
- David on Libra ad wins the online lads’ vote
- A Room of One’s Own: do women need separate spaces to flourish? « a cat in a tree on Mumbo Report: Rebekah Horne, David Lo, David May and Robert Morgan on risk, a decade of change and social media
Other News
55% of news stories came from PR
Crikey
How print content could look on the iPad
Media Guardian
Ikon shows strongest growth in Nielsen report
B&T
Would you associate your brand with Chatroulette?
AdAge.com
Nine boss fury at NRL support for Seven show
Sunday Telegraph
RIP Andrew Jaffe, the man who saved the Clios
New York Times
Seven pushes on with Seinfeld dud
Sydney Morning Herald
2GB sales boss latest in booze incident
Daily Telegraph
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Comments
19 Aug 09
2:29 pm
haha… that was an awesome read…
Holy crap Scientologists are insane…
My favourite bit:
“However, what else would you expect from such people? Australia’s de facto national anthem is about a sheep-rustling hobo who commits suicide by drowning. Australia produced the Scientology wrecker, the Fact-Checker, who accused Church leader Mr David Miscavige of beating him. Australia’s coat of arms features a giant hopping rodent Kangaroo and a dim-witted over-sized turkey known as “Emu”. Australia, whose Prime Ministers, Government Ministers, and High Court Judges have included dozens of self-confessed agnostics, atheists and deviants, has for its national hero a murderous, pistol wielding psychopath, Ned Kelly, who was hanged for his crimes.
Australia’s most popular movie features a man who threatens Americans with a huge knife and thinks it’s funny. “
19 Aug 09
2:43 pm
Wow. Some strong views in there!
And they wonder why they attract the attention of cynics…very entertaining.
19 Aug 09
3:07 pm
I reckon Mumbrella should start a sweepstake on where Naked’s most prolific mystery shopper will strike next …
There’s plenty of scams to choose from and most of them cause psychological harm: http://tinyurl.com/2cldqb
I can see the headline now: “Impotent* Consumer Psychologist with Bad Personality** infiltrates Nigerian Bank Scam”
* as judged by AMI
** as judged by CoS
19 Aug 09
3:23 pm
Amazing how someone can take a view of one person and turn it into an attack on a belief (which has called itself a church for tax purposes only) and turn it into the entire poulation of Australian humans, animals, and their cutlery attacking the entire nation of the USA.
Well done young man!
19 Aug 09
3:28 pm
Nice concept – perhaps he can pose as an international student with moderate grasp of local language, disoriented by intensive but ultimately useless weightloss program who gets sucked into pyramid selling scheme offering timeshare in solarium beds. Go Adam!
20 Aug 09
9:10 am
LOL – yeah, that’s what I’m talking about!!
Just struck by the irony of two different Adam’s conversing about a third bloke also called Adam … did our parents get lazy with the Baby Boys A-Z Names or what …
Still, could have been Aaron.
20 Aug 09
11:01 am
If you like scam busting (and you have some time to kill) visit:
http://www.419eater.com/