Bondi beach stunt fell flat for me
Sometimes I’m glad I read my trade press – because otherwise I’d have no idea what the enormous great campaign laid out on Bondi Beach this weekend was all about.
It smacks of one of those ideas that looks good on paper but nobody tries out beforehand.
If you’re not aware, take a peek at this footage knocked off from my cameraphone.
That was taken from pretty much the best possible vantage point (apart from a helicopter). From beach level it was even less easy to tell what it was. The person I was with failed to guess until I explained.
In fact, each towel was meant to look like a crime scene-style outline of a body, to symbolise the dangers of skin cancer. If I’d not read about it in B&T last week (and seen the hammy Channel Ten ad), I’d have had no idea.
Tim Burrowes founded Mumbrella in 2008. He worked on Mumbrella until 2021. At various points he was editor, content director and editor-at-large. He returned to Mumbrella as Publisher in January 2025
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This was covered last night on the network news services…often some of the highest rating programmes of the week so the overall reach of this was far greater than you and your friend and whoever else was at Bondi yesterday. The news story was accompanied by some compelling first person accounts of their experiences with skin cancer. There were great aerial as well as ground shots
Tim, I know this section is called ‘Opinion’ and you’re entitled to it, but too often I think you jump to conclusions e.g. “”smacks of one of those ideas that looks good on paper but nobody tries out beforehand”. Surely it wouldn’t have been too difficult to call the Cancer Council and ask them what their objectives were and were they achieved?
I think you’d find their objective was to generate a newsworthy ‘event’ to draw attention to the dangers of tanning. Thats what I took out of the news story.
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With Rachael here. Although there may have been some residual benefit for punters at Bondi, I’d suggest the main aim here was to provide some interesting visuals for news media, not as a stunt, viral etc. Certainly seems to have achieved it’s aim there as it was all over TV on the weekend.
Good job Cancer Council.
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Come on Tim…you’re showing your ad-centricity. I have to agree with Scott and Rachael – this was a clever, creative PR idea that got major mass media coverage on TV and again in the early general news section of the SMH this morning. That even a couple of thousand people on the beach that day might not have understood it is no big deal – especially when the curiosity of one was piqued enough to write about it on his blog! How many more went away and discussed it with their friends, family etc? I would wager hundreds. The word of mouth effect was probably better than if the stunt had been obvious, come to think of it…this is an excellent example of integrated communications, in that respect…creative experiential idea executed at low cost with massive amplification through free press and word of mouth…
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.. I saw this on Weather Channel last night. They used it for background footage while reporting the forecast for Sydney’s hot weather to come. Though you couldn’t see the outlines on the towels, I surmised it was a marketing stunt of some kind and wondered how old it might be and if this was stock footage? Not that the avg punter would necessarily have followed the same thought process…
Agree with all the comments above.. any resulting mass media coverage is generally enough to take a modest experiential “stunt” into positive ROI, which it most certainly would have done in this case and therefore achieved its objective. More often than not, these are one small part of a much larger campaign too Tim. The point is that you DID see the TVC, you did understand the point of the stunt, you were able to explain it to somebody and this is the point of integrated communications plans.. when planned and implemented well, they combine in a symbiotic relationship to generate greater awareness and WOM.
Nice idea, well done guys.
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I think it was a fantastic promotion but maybe it would have been wise to have had tv, newspaper, radio coverage the day before rather than after.
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how do you get PR coverage the day prior to the stunt, when the event itself is the whole reason for the coverage?
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Are you serious Darren?! Of course you could get coverage the day before. It’s not about “the stunt”, it’s about the number of deaths from skin cancer. Maybe secure some strong stats for coverage or ask Sydneysiders and the friends and families of those with and have passed from skin cancer to be involved on the day to commemorate those who have died from skin cancer. There are many, many ways that you could secure pre-coverage and if anyone doesn’t think that’s possible than they shouldn’t be in the industry.
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I was in Bondi at the weekend; I thought it was a bunch of Poms making a politically incorrect joke about ze Germans….
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Agree with Rachael and Scott’s comments. The campaign has met its objectives of raising awareness. We were at Bondi yesterday morning and saw the towels and the signage. We discussed the issue of skin cancer at length with a number of fellow Nipper parents!
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I watched two news programs on the day of the Cancer Council stunt and saw the coverage on two networks (ABC and one other – I think it was Seven?) and thought it worked really well.
I also thought the body outlines were ghoulish and they certainly have stuck in my mind -and this morning I was extra careful to apply my 30+ liberally.
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Rachael makes a very good point.
If the intention of the installation was about driving PR rather than engaging with those on the ground, then it may well have been a success on that basis.
It almost doesn’t matter if it makes sense to the punters who were there, if the overall coverage was good enough.
I didn’t see the original PR release, so I’ve no idea if the main goal was one of PR or experiential or a bit of both.
But I’d still argue that to make both work together would be a better result.
Cheers,
Tim – Mumbrella
Ummmm….. Wasn’t this (the footage of the towels at Bondi Beach) simply the filming of the Cancer Council TVC, rather than a publicity stunt? I think its a terrific campaign.
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Hi Jules,
No, I shot that myself on Sunday morning. The towels were there for a good couple of days I think.
Cheers,
Tim – Mumbrella
Agree with Rachael, Scott’s and Claudia. The Cancer Council conducted what seemed to be a very successful skin cancer awareness campaign laying 1700 towels on Bondi Beach to symbolise skin cancer related deaths that occur in Australia annually. Raising the public’s awareness of the dangers of tanning using the iconic Bondi Beach resulted in a worthy message for the Australian public. The campaign readily met its objectives of raising awareness for at least the 340 Bondi Nippers and their parents / carers while they conducted their activities adjacent to the Cancer Council’s towels.
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Anyone know if there was an agency involved with this, or was it all done in house? Either way, kudos deserved.
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Euro RSSCG Sydney did it. Well done Lex.
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