Nova pulls teddy-bear-in-blender ad after viewers mistake it for dog
Nova has pulled its ad for the Merrick, Dools & Ricki-Lee breakfast show’s For Love & Money promotion after just one day – after viewers wrongly thought it showed a dog rather than a teddy bear in a blender.
As Mumbrella reported yesterday, the Happy Soldiers campaign challenges listeners to the Sydney radio show to pledge a sacrifice in exchange for cash.
But after the ad aired last night, the station began to get complaints. And the Advertising Standards Board told Mumbrella that it had received “six or seven” complaints today.
A statement from Nova 969 said:
“Nova 969 is currently running the second phase of its ‘Love & Money’ campaign and two TVCs were launched yesterday to promote it.
“A toy teddy bear is featured in one of the TVCs. It is not an animal, it is a stuffed toy, and it was never our intention for it to be perceived otherwise.
“We value the views and opinions of our listeners and based on some complaints received, Nova 969 has pulled the ad off-air.
“Nova 969 is a huge supporter of the prevention of cruelty to animals and would in no way want to reference the mistreatment of animals, and this was never the intention of the ad”.
Tim Burrowes founded Mumbrella in 2008. He worked on Mumbrella until 2021. At various points he was editor, content director and editor-at-large.
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what a precious society we live in….
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“here precious, precious, precious… anybody seen my dog?”
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LMFAO
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I have to say i did think it was a dog on first glance – there was debate in the office until we played the video and heard the teddy reference….. on first glance you’d easily mistake it for a real dog though – but ridiculous to have to pull the ad altogether..
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Well they get the kinds of listeners they deserver really.
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Anyone really surprised? It was only a matter of time – as sure as Perth people don’t know how to merge in traffic this ad was bound to upset the peanut gallery 🙂
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Is this a reflection of the ongoing seeming loss of the once celebrated Australian laconic sense of humour or was the speed of removal part of a grander plan – perhaps a publicity stunt ?
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I see bad taste rules. Sort of reflects the radio station it is promoting.
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It looks like a dog!!!
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Soft Toys!! When will you learn! At 3am when you are blind drunk & you decide to go to an Ad Agency with some dude in an ironic tshirt and converse trainers ITS NOT FOR A CUP OF MILO! Allegedly……”
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Would a cat have been better ?
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Gee, doesn’t the fact that the blender doesn’t fill up with red goo give people a hint that it isn’t a real animal?
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not being precious nor do i sit in a peanut gallery, or suffer from a lack of humour…. this very simply looks like a dog.
have shown this clip to several people to see what they thought and they all had the same reaction – they thought it was a dog.
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it could’ve been mistaken for a bow wow until the button was pressed. Where was the blood! Shylock would’ve been thrilled.
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the time lapse between the first shot of the “dog” and the initial blend is 4 seconds…. plenty of time for people to have several thoughts…
simple solution – replace the “dog” with an obvious teddy.
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Teddy or puppy ? Turn the audio up and listen to the ad…it starts with a shot of a teddy bear, the v/o says “bye, bye Teddy”.
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Oh…. I thought they meant the ad was a dog!
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poor teddy
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that teddy had it coming…
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Why didn’t they just use a Teddy BEAR!
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we might live in a “precious” society.. right or wrong, but who the hell didn’t see this coming? i would have not even gone down that path, might have thought it tho, but ffs… use your brain!
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Political correctness gone mad
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With or without the teddy it’s a pretty lame ad … doesn’t really give me a sense of what the show’s about … particularly since they’re a new-ish team that clearly haven’t yet given Sydney a reason to tune in.
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Agreed David. Perhaps NOVA should think about building their brand before executing slapstick promotional concepts …
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…. Will it blend.
Yes.
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well they’ve lost a listener
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this is so stupid. it was stupid even to put a teddy bear it looks like a dog . its cruel but i guess they thought it was funny .. lammmmmeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee ad ever seen
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>>Would a cat have been better ?
So many cats. So few recipes.
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I saw this today on the news.. and freaked – even though it’s a bear, it still freaked me out.. the whole though of it is left with me… that’s the worst part.
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when i saw this on the news flash i thought it was a real dog and my 7 yr old daughter saw it too and she was devastated. why would u even use this shit for promoting a radio station. morons. i only found out it was not real when i searched for it on the net. now my daughter has gone to bed thinking about it.
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well if adults think its a dog how do you think kids would see it
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that was a drop bear, before blending.
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Does the line ‘bye teddy’ not clarify enough????
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Think of the teddy. Will someone please think of the teddy!
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