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Opinion
After Harold
The ‘Harold rumour’ rarely goes away.
Last time round WPP was rumoured to be looking at buying Mitchell Communication Group. On another occasion one of the trade magazines hoaxed a rival into reporting that Telstra was the buyer.
This time, the rumour appears to have a great deal more substance. Read more »
Intelligent TV – the next big thing?
I was, I must confess, mistaken about last night’s Gruen Nation. Read more »
Masterchef: Homophobic? No. Racist? No. Ageist? Maybe
In this guest posting, Tactical TV’s Tony Richardson argues that Masterchef shows Australian TV audiences are ready for multiculturalism but not older faces
When the popularity of a TV show bumps the prime minister and the leader of the opposition to an earlier time slot, you know you have a phenomenon. Read more »
Bad enough the SMH iPad app is just a PDF, forcing a print subscription is insane
So yesterday Fairfax launched its Sydney Morning Herald iPad app. The strategy – designed to shore up print – and the execution – already derided by users as a “glorifed PDF reader” – are both laughable.
If there were ever doubts that Fairfax is two companies pulling in different directions, then the handling of the iPad app dispels them. Read more »
Is a kettle boiling a good ad?
So would you watch a kettle boiling? The weekend magazines carriedied an unusual ad.It was a plain, unbranded address for the url Life is too short.com.au. Read more »
Guest post: Why Sensis believes in the cause
After Mumbrella criticised the Facebook campaign by Sensis to give socks to the homeless, we invited the brand to explain its thinking. In this guest posting, Sensis communications manager Danielle Horan explains the background to the idea
The debate about the intention behind the Sensis 1234 Warm Up campaign certainly unearthed a range of differing opinions. Read more »
Hungry Jack’s – something to sing about
I often enjoy giving the Hungry Jack’s ads a kicking, so it’s good to see a new one where there’s an interesting idea. Read more »
The big election question
As an occasional media commentator, I’m sometimes asked: ‘Tell me Tim. Given that politicians want to engage the electorate beyond the hardcore politics junkies, would it be a good idea to schedule the leaders’ debate at the exact same time as the final of Masterchef, arguably Australia’s favourite TV programme and likely to be the most watched show of the year?” Read more »
Why this is NOT the Twitter election
If you read the last few days’ papers, you would think that the Twitterati will decide the outcome of the election. Read more »
Paging the fun police
While any brand has to worry about the legal implications of running a contest, there does come a point where the entire thing looks so unappealing it may be worth going back to the drawing board. Read more »
Oh PETA
This ad is a tough watch.
If you don’t want to see seals being clubbed, then don’t watch. Read more »
Sensis – social responsibility isn’t about patronising the needy about their socks
I wish I could put my finger on what it is that makes this social issues campaign for Sensis feel so icky: Read more »
Old Spice: Best use of social media yet?
Today has been a good day. You know those very rare moments where you see an advertising idea and you can recognise not only how good it is, but how it’s going to inspire other great work? What Old Spice did next is one of those moments.It combines great advertising, great writing, a huge PR idea and excellent use of social media as a two-way channel. Read more »
If that’s how paywalls work then we’re utterly flipping screwed
So tonight, for the first time, I went behind Fairfax Media’s pay wall.
Based on that experience, if the future of journalism is paid content then every one of us working hacks is utterly screwed. Read more »
Media Watch picks an odd target
I’ve got a nasty feeling I’ve finally gone native.
Much like Stockholm Syndrome where kidnap victims come to adore their captors, journalists have always been susceptible to a similar syndrome. Read more »
Witchery owns up: To Be Honest I’m A Hopeless Romantic, says lying actress
Witchery has finally come clean on its backfiring man-in-the-jacket stunt, posting a new video this morning, in which the actress claims: “To be honest I’m a hopeless romantic.”
The early reaction on the Youtube site, in which the girl thanks people for coming with her on the ride, have been negative, with people posting messages like:
“Hmmm … there wasn’t exactly much of a ‘ride’. It kind of died before it got started. You’re adorable. It’s just the marketing agency that’s done a terrible job.”
“So, why did I do it? Well to be honest … It was BECAUSE I WAS PAID”
“You are everything that is wrong with the world. Please whore elsewhere.”
“Worst stunt ever. You young lady have ruined your career in modeling and “acting”. The fashion label is also screwed. You got on national tv, but are viewed nationwide as a loser.You are pretty. But this whole thing is a failure.”
The hoax was orchestrated by Sydney-based strategy agency Naked Communications. Mumbrella has just talked to the agency, which stands by its work, and says the client is very happy with the results. More on this a little later today.
The furore follows a similar row after early videos for Tourism Queensland’s best job in the world promotion- includign a girl apparently getting a tattoo in order to win, were revealed to be fake.
January 21st, 2009 at 10:22 am
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Comments
21 Jan 09
10:34 am
It’s cringeworthy. I’m cringing.
21 Jan 09
10:50 am
I can’t believe she has the gall to smile smugly at the camera like it is all still supercute and nothing wrong has been done. A hopeless romantic? Bah!
I will never buy Witchery Man products.
21 Jan 09
11:02 am
When will Naked learn that not all publicity is good publicity. This mea culpa shows no remorse. Vote with your feet men of Australia, shun this jacket.
21 Jan 09
11:14 am
Could she be any less sincere? Not a hopeless romantic, more like an out-of-work actress. But a good one I’ll give her that to fool the likes of Channel 9’s Today among others. But I kinda have to give it to Naked, everyone’s talking about Witchery Man.
21 Jan 09
12:15 pm
Its up to web users that are sick of this type of manipulative marketing to stand up for it. Boycott Witchery and avoid anything that they sell. Spread mud all over their public image.
Stand up to the so called viral marketing gurus!
21 Jan 09
12:45 pm
I wasn’t fooled, but if she came out in the confession and said..okay listen….we made a mistake…we’re sorry..that’s forgivable…but she came out and said…listen it was hoax, how nice is this jacket. No remorse what so ever.
As any business knows…customers are pretty loyal. For example, say a restaurant tries to scam you… i.e excessive surcharges/bad service etc…you’re not going to go back there. Likewise with this campaign…the consumer will be thinking…they tried to fool/scam me..that’s not good = no sale. In this business environment, every company needs every sale. I can just see the marketing people saying…oh we got heaps of media coverage – but in this case – it’s going to be for all the wrong reasons. It’s like a footy player, saying he got heaps of media coverage, but for all the wrong reasons…i.e alcohol/fighting/assault etc. Not good witchery
21 Jan 09
1:19 pm
Agree with everyone’s sentiments. The video is horrible and so staged. Bringing back memories of the outing of LonelyGirl15. I wonder if they were even aware of that… really shows you what not to do.
It’ll take a long time for Witchery to regain trust in this space. And lastly, men’s clothing from… Witchery? That’s one market extension that I don’t fancy seeing.
21 Jan 09
1:35 pm
What a naughty, shameless piece of muff that Heidi is.
ps. Those jackets are lame, Witchery is lame. What self-respecting male would buy stuff from a store their mum shopped at it the 80s, apart from gaybos.
21 Jan 09
1:39 pm
Have to agree with everyone here, the acting was cringe worthy and the whole thing just smacks of lameless! I wonder how many men this would have actually appealed to anyway?
21 Jan 09
1:53 pm
I made it through 39 seconds. It was tough.
21 Jan 09
3:11 pm
This whole concept is insulting on so many levels i dont know where to start and her acting 2nd time around is just as bad as the first. Still so scripted, still so fake and insulting
‘Lily’ did it because she likes a romantic (but still fictional and deceptive) story. Surely Really lily? just because your a romantic? not because theyre paying you? No apologies just ‘wow check out this jacket, available soon.
Even if a guy did venture into witchery to shop, $365 is too much for even a nice jacket
21 Jan 09
4:19 pm
They (Naked/Witchery) just keep lying to us…..she is NOT an actress!
Oh the humanity.
21 Jan 09
4:38 pm
This was a seriously pathetic and incredibly cynical campaign. besides that, anyone with one ounce of emotional intelligence could work out that it was one big fat lie after watching the video on YouTube. the girl couldn’t act her way out of a paper bag
21 Jan 09
5:07 pm
I’m with jas – where do you start?
Even down to the cutesy ‘warm up’ shots at the start that someone went to to the effort to countdown over the top of to make it look more…what..set-up, contrived? wtf?
Notice Naked has been very defensive about it, they ought to be, it’s just shi*t.
23 Jan 09
11:14 am
Aren’t “lying” and “actress” a little bit tautological? Surely, all “acting” involves “lying” – that is, pretending to be someone you’re not. It’s a bit like referring to “innocent victims” (as opposed to those who deserve it because they’re guilty).
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