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Opinion
The keyboard warrior of Twitter
In this guest post, NBN staffer Scott Rhodie writes an unofficial, personal view on his experience with a hostile Twitter critic.Last night I had a strange incident. While on Twitter I noticed someone saying that Australia’s NBN is already outdated. I wrote a small note back explaining they were incorrect.
And their response? The lovely gentleman (whose Twitter profile says: ‘Father of 5 kids, Loving Grandfather of 10 Grandchildren,and 2 Great Granddaughters. love to give heaps to Pollies and Poofters’) said to me: “Go and lick Gillards C*** out U commie Prick”
What's in a name?
In this guest post, Moensie Rossier wonders about the power of names for brands and marketers.
Brands have been having a bit of fun with names lately, not to mention a fair bit of success. Interbrand just named a headhunting firm Cloak & Dagger. And ‘Share a Coke’ showed how much power there is in a name.
The Coke campaign effectively short-circuited the usual mechanics of communication. It undoubtedly stroked people’s egos. But, I believe, its success stems from the fact that it directly and automatically affected people’s behaviour, rather than doing so indirectly by shaping attitudes.
Best ads from Super Bowl 2012
The Super Bowl is all done and a team from North America won. But as well as some sort of sporting event, it’s the world’s biggest advertising showcase. See the best of them right here… and please tell us what you think.
How to debunk media myths
In this post, UWS’s Ullrich Ecker, John Cook and Stephen Lewandowsky argue that cognitive science can help PRs form strategies in managing media misreporting.
A growing cohort of commentators has bemoaned the descent of contemporary political “debate” into a largely fact-free zone.
How about simply focusing on what consumers want?
In this guest post, Peter Mountford argues that brands should think more about what is really going on for consumers
Who here is hoping their favourite brand of toilet paper is going to be organizing a flash mob on their way home from work today?
What the Optus web copyright victory means
In this analysis first published on The Conversation, RMIT’s Marita Shelly examines the implications of Telstra’s defeat over the online rights to the AFL broadcast deal
This week’s Federal Court ruling that Optus customers are able to view sporting matches minutes after they are streamed live without breaching copyright is a landmark decision that alters our understanding of copyright law, and has significant implications for the AFL’s broadcasting rights deal.
Does Gina Rinehart’s bite of a chunk of Fairfax make her an oligarch?
In an article that first appeared in The Conversation, Mark Rolfe wonders whether the mining magnate’s move could turn Fairfax into something resembling America’s Fox network.
Australia’s richest person Gina Rinehart has moved to increase her stake in Fairfax Media, owner of The Age, Sydney Morning Herald and a number of radio stations. Rinehart has already shown her desire to play a role in public life, campaigning against former Prime Minister Kevin Rudd’s aborted mining tax. She has also demonstrated a willingness to make media investments to ensure her pro-business worldview is promulgated.
What does this latest move by Rinehart mean?
Gillard's Australia Day crisis
PM Julia Gillard’s media adviser Tony Hodges has been forced to resign over the Australia Day tent embassy debacle.
It came after it emerged he had revealed opposition leader Tony Abbott’s whereabouts, leading to both politicians being rescued by police in ugly scenes.
Mumbrella editor Tim Burrowes and advertising practitioner Jane Caro debate the topic on Weekend Sunrise’s masters of Spin segment:
The biggest cock-up I made in business
In this guest post, Chris Savage urges agency staff to live the brand.I still shudder when I think about how incredibly stupid I was when I made the biggest stuff up of my career. And then, 18 years later, I did it again. Do not make this mistake with your clients. Ever.
Hey Groupon. Thanks for fucking up email
In this guest post, Daniel Monheit warns that group deal overload is devaluing email marketingEmail marketing used to be fabulous. Back in the heady days of 2010, brands would work hard to build up well qualified databases, upon which they’d bestow carefully crafted correspondence filled with information, offers and incentives. The recipients, of course would be delighted: “Oh look! An email! From one of my favourite brands! And it’s 40 cents off at Woolies this week!”.
The staggering sway of Harold Mitchell
The Power Index today names Aegis Media chairman Harold Mitchell as the most powerful person in Melbourne. Andrew Crook profiles him.
Harold Mitchell takes pride in dispensing with the niceties. When The Power Index visited his South Melbourne private office before Christmas, fresh remains were scattered all over the boardroom table.
Share a Coke with… the moronic masses
The most-read story on Mumbrella last year, with not far off 100,000 page views, was a fairly humdrum yarn about the launch of Coca-Cola’s name-on-a-bottle campaign.The headline, “Coca-Cola puts people’s names on bottles in ‘Share a Coke’ campaign”, though hated by any self-respecting sub-editor, was loved by Google. And in rushed what can be politely described as the public.
Assumptions kill creativity
In this guest post, Gual Barwell disagrees that the sales success of the Old Spice social media campaign was overstated.Yesterday’s post from Cathie McGinn suggested the Old Spice campaign failed to connect with consumers. Based on the facts and figures, I disagree.
What Old Spice and Wieden + Kennedy has done and done phenomenally well is to create a franchise.
The SMH's readers (are wrong) editor
We are now about five months into the reign of Australia’s first readers’ editor. And I don’t think it is working.
It struck me at the time of Judy Prisk’s appointment to the Sydney Morning Herald that the fact that her boss was editor-in-chief Peter Fray was not going to be ideal if she was going to be the independent voice of the reader.
The emperor's new fragrance: Old Spice’s campaign failure
In this guest post, Cathie McGinn slays a sacred cow of 21st century marketing – the highly awarded Old Spice campaign.One of the biggest myths of recent times (by which I mean a story of great heroism and triumph we’d all like to believe but deep down know to be untrue) is the Old Spice social media campaign. It’s been much lauded and awarded as an example of outstanding content, a creative and collaborative way of connecting with consumers and driving a record increase in sales.
Website to readers: Get a life
The Daily Sydney lifestyle website took an interesting approach to consumer feedback today after a racy American Apparel ad led to a couple of readers complaining on Twitter that it had made the site unsuitable for viewing at work.
Although Daily Sydney appears to have pulled down the offending ad after the complaints, it also tweeted back, telling two commenters readers to “get a life”.
(Update: The ad is now back. The site has also sent the following new tweet: “Dear Sydney, please support us against @mumbrella by commenting on this article”)
(Update to the update: As you’ll see from the comment stream below, American Apparel says this is not an ad that it paid for or asked to have on the site.)
November 23rd, 2009 at 3:14 pm
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Comments
23 Nov 09
3:36 pm
I can still see the ad, so I don’t think it’s been pulled.
I guess that’s a risk of organisations moving into social netowork areas, when the person ‘speaking’ on behalf of the organisation speaks their mind a bit too much.
But then again, they say you’ve got to be natural and relatively informal in the social networking sites
23 Nov 09
3:39 pm
Yes the ad has reappeared for me too. (So I suppose a NSFW warning applies if you follow the link).
Cheers,
Tim – Mumbrella
23 Nov 09
3:48 pm
As the other person on that tweet – even though I don’t condone the response of Daily Sydney, I really think it’s a mole hill being made into a mountain. Like Ratatoskr said, it’s a relatively informal domain, but on the other hand being overly defensive is probably not the best method with customer relations.
@artr was fairly aggressive to Daily Sydney in his initial comments (see bit.ly/5FALK4 and http://bit.ly/8z1Ipx), stating that the ad could lead to sexual harassment suits and it’s availability to minors – which is fairly unlikely seeing the target market *is* those over the age of 18.
I really think that is this more the responsibility of the advertiser, American Apparel, to ensure that ads are of a standard to be displayed on websites that aren’t of an explicit nature. As Daily Sydney is a new site, I think they’re not really in a position to be rejecting content for advertising revenue, so it may have been hard for them to say no to post things like this.
23 Nov 09
4:00 pm
I follow Daily Sydney and saw their posts, clicked on the other tweeters to see what all the fuss was about. I honestly couldn’t care less about the ad or their issues with the ad but I was taken back by the way that Daily Sydney dealt with the situation. Poor response indeed. They have the right to defend their content sure – but do it in a more adult way than “…get a life… (and)…we love u, u are wonderful and thanks for fighting for us x”
23 Nov 09
4:01 pm
Mumbo,
As the editor of Daily Sydney, I would like to say that Daily Sydney does not pretend to be for everybody..
We are a daily guide to Sydney’s subculture.
It is our belief that @atr was bringing bad and mainstream attention to our site. You should all go and see his douche bag style tweets..
We apologies to anyone who is offended – we think American Apparel is a great brand and we particularly like the naughty banners with girls in them..
Daily Sydney is the daily guide to Sydney’s subculture and is not for douche bags.
Thank you
@dailysydney
23 Nov 09
4:20 pm
As I mentioned in my blog post (http://blog.artrlee.com/2009/1.....r-ads.html)
My initial comment at dailysydney came across strong, but the point still stands that the images used were of a nature that should not be displayed in public without warning.
Specifically I didn’t say harassment “suits” but rather issues. I currently work with HR and IT so this jumped out at me.
We see nudity used in magazines many times. Although the blog’s audience seems to be focussed at young adults, it is very unsuspecting to see a nude image displayed in banner advertising.
23 Nov 09
4:25 pm
nude American Apparel ads have been around since the dawn of time, I have no problem with them
get adblock if they really bother you
23 Nov 09
4:26 pm
As a regular reader of Daily Sydney I think its hilarious! The complainants do need to get a life. If an independent culture website can’t carry risque advertising and have a bit of attitude then life would be very dull indeed.
23 Nov 09
4:28 pm
Arthur, you need to get out from behind the computer a bit more buddy. Hit pitt st mall on a hot day and you’ll see more nudity than in an Am Appy ad.
Point well made that Daily Sydney is not targeted at those under 18, and if you’re over 18 and offended by the ads, then you should probably pop back over to ninemsn.
23 Nov 09
4:28 pm
Ha! I almost wish I was still living in Sydney so that Daily Sydney was relevant to me. Why shouldn’t they tell people to get a life? They have the right to talk to and respond to their customers and their critics anyway they want. It’s so refreshing after all these years of strangling political correctness that people are starting to speak (type) their minds again.
For the record, I think that the exaggerated reaction to the ad is douchebagish, particularly in re: viewing at work. Like, shouldn’t you be WORKING and not looking up websites?
23 Nov 09
4:28 pm
Being a person on that tweet, @jymmysim, I would like to clear the fact that I identified that Daily Sydney may not have control over the content that their sponsors provide them with. As such, “it may not be @dailysydney’s doing, but @AmericanApparel’s”.
I am both a fan of Daily Sydney (& American Apparel), and through the stream of tweets, have defended Daily Sydney’s brand, over this issue.
23 Nov 09
4:29 pm
Um.. ya think American Apparels ads are NSFW? Google Image their lead model Sasha Grey and see what her full time job is
23 Nov 09
4:33 pm
Daily Sydney rocks my socks and rules my world. With out it, i would just be another single girl, sitting at home eating ice-cream and crying about how my life is so unfulfilled and wishing i had a sweet ass subculture website to make it worth while. Which, thank god, i do!
23 Nov 09
4:36 pm
Some companies don’t understand the power of social networking. If you don’t understand the medium you shouldn’t be using it imo – or you should hire someone who does get it.
When I posted a review of Lord of the Fries earlier this year the company responded in a similar way to Daily Sydney, tweeting my web address and telling their fans to go tell me I’m wrong: What unfolded was pretty fascinating – a lot of their fans were disgusted that they would try to bully me about my review. I wrote about it here: http://www.lisadempster.com.au/?p=891
Lord of the Fries told me later that they were going to hire a social media expert to handle their twitter and facebook accounts in the future.
23 Nov 09
4:38 pm
What’s with all the ‘douche bag’ comments? Is American Apparell supplying the insults as well as the soft porn?
This is definitely working as a free publicity campaign for Daily Sydney.
Can’t say they’ve impressed me very much, and I’m a strong follower of “subculture” mags and sites. But I prefer ones written by adults.
23 Nov 09
4:47 pm
I am fortunate enough to work in a workplace where we are not heavily restricted with our internet access and can browse sites like http://www.dailysydney.com in our lunch break to find out what to do tonight.
To clarify, I was not “offended” by the advertisement but rather felt it was an issue to have the images displayed on my screen at work in an open plan office.
23 Nov 09
5:02 pm
I think that using your brand to be negative in the social media domain almost always ends up in the brand looking unprofessional.
Social media interaction is a complex beast – in dialogue with your peeps it’s often not about whether you’re wrong or you’re right, but about the overall message you’re sending – in this case, the message reads as you Daily Sydney being kind of childish.
23 Nov 09
5:03 pm
“Daily Sydney is the daily guide to Sydney’s subculture and is not for douche bags.”
Really? Reading Mark’s response only made me think that people who claim to write about ‘subculture’ are synonymous with that oh-so-subcultural insult of ‘douchebag’.
23 Nov 09
5:17 pm
Hey Mark,
I’m all anti-douche bags, and I was all ready to defend the site, but unless bare boobs, or even bear boobs, is something that normally appears on the site, I think readers have the right to be angry.
You’re talking about people, supposedly from Sydney’s subculture (otherwise why would he be reading it?) who as far as I can tell are far more annoyed about how you handled it rather than the content itself.
If this was mAnBRELLA* and specialised in everything under the male porn umbrella, and I was a regular visitor, I’d expect some wang. It’s not though and if Tim put some on the front site, I’d probably be a little annoyed as I regularly log in from work.
Sure you have the right to show whatever you want, and @Artr’s initial comments were a little aggressive, I just don’t see the point in escalating it.
*Copyrighted for when Focal Attractions next expands…
23 Nov 09
5:33 pm
As one of the people responsible for American Apparel’s web advertising, I think I can shed a little light on this situation. American Apparel ads, although occasionally controversial, have many admirers. On a pretty regular basis, fans of the company and the ads will post them on their site either our of support or to solicit other companies to purchase the ad space.
Since we don’t currently have a web ad deal with the Daily Sydney, I imagine that is the case here. As you can see the, the ads are not the proper size and don’t have any tracking codes – they’re posted just like normal images.
We try to be very specific with our advertisements and take a lot of pride in shooting and designing them almost individually for the sites they appear on. The Unzip ad was actually shot and done for an site in the US about a year ago and hasn’t run since. The Made in USA ad is running on a series of fashion blogs internationally since the model is wearing one of our newest pieces, the lace catsuit. In other words, although we appreciate the enthusiasm exhibited by the Daily Sydney, it is not ad space we purchased or arranged.
If anyone needs to speak with me about it, definitely shoot me an email – ryanh@americanapparel.net
Ryan Holiday
23 Nov 09
5:34 pm
I’m rather curious to know why American Apparel deemed bare beasts as appropriate for their ads but clearly inappropriate for their own website.. I am surprised (and of course mildly disappointed) to find no nipplesque images at the client’s site when I click on the “offending” banner.. double standards??
23 Nov 09
5:35 pm
ah.. explanation passed me in the ether
23 Nov 09
5:37 pm
Oh, and for the record, I like the ads – just don’t know how this became a discussion over whether people like the site (skippy badge for you) or who can say subculture the most times…
23 Nov 09
5:52 pm
“The Sydney subculture”? I thought the whole concept of subcultures was that there were many of them, not one “official” subculture proclaimed by what is basically a media outlet promoting entertainment options to the yoof.
23 Nov 09
6:01 pm
Mark from Daily Sydney: fair enough to disagree with the criticism, but why not just say that, rather than insult them? Or take the chance to explore why one of your (previously loyal) readers has a problem with it?
You’ve basically taken the attitude that anyone who dares to critique anything you’ve done doesn’t “get it” and isn’t “subculture”, as if subculture must be some homogenous crowd of yes-men and yes-women to what you say.
All this over an image with boobies, when “NSFW” is a pretty standard thing on the net nowadays. Sure, you don’t want to mainstream but sometimes “subculture” people work for The Man remember, and might surf your site during their lunch break?
23 Nov 09
6:06 pm
Said website extols the virtues of over-priced, fat-free frozen yoghurt in Bondi. A ‘subcultural’ website? My ass it is.
23 Nov 09
6:13 pm
Brad, dude, you’re out of line. You need something cool to eat while hanging on the Town Hall steps…
23 Nov 09
6:16 pm
This is just kind of sad – attacking someone who just had an opinion and in a way who was trying to help Daily Sydney. To respond in such an immature manner to not only individuals, but to Mumbrella, really shows their lack of knowledge in the online sphere.
I’ve never checked out their website, and don’t plan on doing so now. Obviously they’ll do anything for website hits, which is just kind of sad.
23 Nov 09
6:19 pm
Oh, and about the actual ‘advert’: there are plenty more tasteful, safe for work AA ads out there they could have stolen for the cashed-up bogan audience they crave.
AA ads are funny, smart, subversive, sexy and really differentiate the brand from all others. Kudos.
23 Nov 09
6:53 pm
It’s a pair of fucking knockers on an “edgy” website.
Jesus wept.
23 Nov 09
7:03 pm
It’s a free world people
23 Nov 09
7:37 pm
I am scarred for life as a result of seeing that image. Just yesterday I saw many larger uncovered breasts in the street, and they belong to men. I am also very confused.
23 Nov 09
11:06 pm
dudes, its just a blog …
24 Nov 09
1:03 pm
I only went to the site to see the boobies. Sadly, no boobies are currently on show.
In the meantime, check out their regular ad styles…
http://images.google.com.au/im.....CBQQsAQwAA
In the immortal words of our boy Tom, “It’s not unusual to be loved by anyone…..”
25 Nov 09
4:33 pm
Sammy D…sweet ass or subculture website?
26 Nov 09
2:44 pm
I’m more amused by the fact AA didn’t actually pay for this ad spot and Daily Sydney decided to put it up themselves.
16 Dec 09
6:58 am
I’m with @simple. Are we looking too deeply here?
Although, I am a little confused why you put up someone’s ad if they’re not paying for it