Anti internet filter campaigners urged to involve their mums
Adelaide agency Fnuky has returned to the battle against the Government’s proposed internet filter with a campaign on behalf of Electronic Frontiers Australia.
It follows Fnuky’s Censordyne campaign, which was on behalf of campaign group Get Up last year.
The new campaign is called Itʼs Time To Tell Mum and encourages tech-savvy young Australians to talk to older members of the family who may have misconceptions about the internet filter.
The Time To Tell Mum website is backed by a video from comedian Akmal Saleh discussing the issues.
Fnuky creative director David Campbell said, “Most of the conversations around this issue are happening between people who have a deep understanding of it. We want to leverage the passion of these people and have them explain it to those close to them.
“In a way weʼre preaching to the converted and helping asking them to evangalize.”
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Have a feeling Conroy isn’t going to like this!!
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Nice concept, but wouldn’t you want to put a bit more meat in there so when Mum asks ‘Why shouldn’t I support it?’ you’ve actually got something to say?
Sure, you’re talking to a savvy audience but if you want people to evangelise something, it never hurts to give them the right words to do it…
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Well if the campaign is done by Fnothingy then it’s definitely not going to work. Such a good cause tho, a good agency should have picked it up. oh wait, good agencies have real clients, that’s why they didn’t.
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far out Akmal goes on and on and ooooonn. cut it down by 2 minutes!
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Not a fan of Akmals comedy but a fan of this concept.
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Thank you Anonymous for your forthcoming and articulate insight.
‘Fnothingy’ is a very clever line indeed. You should be in advertising!
Perhaps you should ask the 15,000+ people who in 24 hours have started a conversation with their family about this issue whether the campaign will work.
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bahaha mum’s don’t love gossip… advertising people love gossip!
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I like the idea – anything to get your average Australian to understand what the government is really planning. My parents knew nothing about the issue until recently, I dare say like the majority of baby boomers out there.
Anonymous, I read a quote once “As iron is eaten by rust, so are the envious consumed by envy”. I must ask, did you read the article or watch the video, or did you see the name Fnuky and let the green eyed monster have it’s say?
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Great cause featuring a comedic lost cause. It cancels each other out.
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The idea is fantastic – but there’s a trap the campaign has fallen into, and that’s to do with the very last line of the clip…
Pushing the idea that “Internet censorship is a bad idea” is the best way to play into the hands of Conroy and his followers – because the vast majority of Mums and Dads will agree with the idea that Internet censorship is actually a good idea. The “older” Australians that this campaign is targeting have lived with censorship all their lives – television, books, cinema… and they are quite comfortable with the concept of “bad” things that only “perverts” would watch not being allowed.
Unfortunately for them, the concept of censoring something as vast and dynamic as the Internet just isn’t plausible, and it’s this fact that needs to be told to the Mums and Dads and Australia.
If you tell your Mum that the Internet shouldn’t be censored she’s liable to wash your mouth out with soap and send you to your room.
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Can’t stand Akmal. He’s not funny and agree with James C – 4 minutes of his dribble is too long.
There is a wide range of comedian/entertainers who would have been able to do a better job. Would love to know what the thought behind it was? Hope cost wasn’t one of the factors.
Great concept and congratulations David on the numbers, however I doubt that everyone who has watched the video has ‘started a conversation with their families’. Not sure how you will measure that.
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Gawd, unfunny ethnics are the worst! Good cause though.
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NehadK – To clarify the numbers I quoted weren’t views but people that have registered their conversation with their mum on the website via Facebook, Skype, SMS, email or in person.
Thanks for your comments RE: Akmal. He may not be to your taste, but the comments on YouTube are an interesting insight into peoples reaction to his brand of humour.
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registering a conversation is probably a lot different to actually having one.
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I was interested in this until I found out Akmal was featured. Putting more of this guy’s work online is starting to make me believe in internet censorship.
Seriously, poor choice of talent. Most people I know rate this guy as a prize moron, and wouldn’t listen to a thing he has to tell them. Especially not over the course of four minutes.
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I’m seriously starting to worry that I’m the only person that thinks this guy is effing hilarious.
The polarization of comedy. The whole world raves about Arj Barker and I can’t stand the guy.
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Well, this campaign certainly won’t work as mums are clearly stupid people with no knowledge of how the internet works at all!!
Grrrrrrr
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Well, this campaign certainly won’t work as mums are clearly stupid people with no knowledge of how the internet works at all!!
Grrrrrrr
The people I know who have been actively blogging against Conroy’s net filter have been middle aged women. So the people behind this campaign and people like Adam Paull can take their stupid prejudices and stick them.
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Isn’t this the same idea as the great schlep????
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Helen, I’m quite certain you and your middle aged female friends blogging is what isn’t working.
EFA have encouraged more than 40,000 people in the past few days to go talk to their families about Internet Censorship.
How on earth do you call this campaign prejudice, it’s a very good political strategy.
Why don’t you and your blogger friends, get up off your backsides, and do something useful – go lobby MP’s, Stephen Conroy, Kevin Rudd, Tony Abbott all are saying Mums and Dads think this filter is a good idea. I don’t think your blog may have had the reach you expected it to.
Sarah – wasn’t the Great Schlep instrumental in getting Obama elected?
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Ummm… Helen…
If you go back and look at both the campaign and what I wrote more closely you will realise that both were talking about the older members of the community that aren’t quite so web-savvy as yourself, but see censorship as a positive thing.
These are the people that need convincing, not people with enough Internet experience and common sense who realise the so-called “filter” is not going to work and can see it’s sinister uses.
I would hazard a guess and say that in a general poll, most Australians who know little or nothing about it, or have only heard Conroy’s spin, would support such a policy – especially as the government would no doubt phrase the question something like “do you support the blocking of dirty, disgusting filth so our precious little angles can surf the ‘net without the fear of constant molestation by dirty old men, or are you one of those paedophile perverts who should rot in Hell – Yes or No?”
Who wouldn’t say yes?
And Helen, while I’m not in favour of blocking Australian’s access to parts of the Internet, your incoherent ramblings has convinced me that perhaps we should start looking at blocking some Australians entirely…
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Adam Paull, you’ve hit the nail on the head. You, Helen and myself are a part of a small group of people who understand the filter and as such are opposed to it.
The now famous Hungry Beast/McNair Ingenuity Research poll from February found that that 80% of people were in favour of “having a mandatory Government Internet filter that would automatically block all access in Australia. It also showed that women (87%) were much more likely than men (73%) to support the question with the likelihood of support increasing with age.
What we do know is that on first glance many people support the filter but as they understand the details of it they quickly become passionately opposed to it.
Helen, I understand that you and people you associate with may be tech-savvy, politically aware and understand the details of the proposed filter. You aren’t the target of this campaign. The target of this campaign are those who, without understanding the details, think in principal the filter is a good idea.
You need to understand that to win this debate we don’t just need you & your tech-savvy friends ‘actively blogging against the filter’.. it requires the average mum to understand that it is a bad idea.
Given that the group that was least likely to support the filterer males (25%), people aged 18-29 (27%), people with no children in the household (28%) and city-dwellers (24%), it’s makes total sense for them to be the target of a campaign to help educate those close to them.
And it certainly doesn’t mean the campaign is sexist.
Those of us that understand the details of this filter need to stop talking to each other and start talking to those the Government is relying on for support.
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You need to understand that to win this debate you need to have a campaign that doesn’t pi$$ off and alienate a good chunk of your supporters.
It’s extraordinary that an ad agency would claim that they can belittle or ridicule a social group as long as that social group isn’t the target of the ad. Just astonishing. I find it ethically bankrupt. Also, you and EFA don’t seem to really know what your target is. You say the campaign is OK because it’s targeted at mothers, EFA says it’s OK because it’s NOT targeted at mothers, but at their offspring. I would have thought that would be a pretty basic thing for an ad agency to agree on with their client.
Just on a tangent, I find it mildly amusing that EFA supporters, alone of all people who have argued with me on the internet, take the tack of blogging is stupid and why do you blog etc. Not only is that something I usually only hear from the techno challenged, but it’s a terrible irony that the only people who are telling me not to write and make my voice heard on the internet are Electronic Frontiers Australia supporters.
Here’s a hint for the EFA: The stereotype of male technocrats is that they’re a bit socially inept. Of course we know that that is a cruel stereotype. Perhaps they could try not brushing off being called on a sexist campaign in ways that indicate, well, a lack of ability to imagine what it might be like for others. Have a nice day.
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Carl Baron would have done this better
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p.s. i am not carl baron
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This ad does nothing to support the anti-internet censorship campaign. In fact, it makes me want to support censorship – of this ad!
GetUp’s one is much better – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YchJlHoFCfw&
It understands the issues and presents it in a way that engages audiences and doesn’t piss me off.
Cleanternet also did a sterling job – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RkmcupFx3FQ&feature=player_embedded.
Appreciate the concept, though. There needs to be a national campaign by loved australian citizens telling the govt to stick the filter (nay, blacklist) up their asses.
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haha, this is funny, but is it fun making the government look funny?
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What the hell has been done to this poor guy?
I’ve enjoyed his work in the past. I’ve seen him poke fun at stereotypes to great comedic effect, while at the same time make some cutting points.
But this?
Not funny. Not convincing. Not even coherent.
Rather, it is gibberish broken up by plain mockery of mothers, deriding them as gossipy, not technically competent and not politically aware or engaged.
More effective would be some plain facts, a good explanatory analogy for those men and women who are not familiar with the idea that there are different data transfer protocols and some references for further reading.
Insulting the people you want to convince is counterproductive.
Targeting this kind of derisive, stereotype perpetuating monologue at kids is really bad form.
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