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Ray Hadley has ‘Get routed’ ad for street directory pulled from Macquarie Radio Network

ray hadleyRadio 2GB’s morning show host Ray Hadley has had a Father’s Day ad for UBD Gregorys Street Directories – which made a pun about telling dad to ‘get routed’ – pulled from the Macquarie Radio Network.

After the ad was played on his show this morning Hadley launched into a rant describing it as “highly, highly inappropriate” and adding: “I have no doubt that some smart ‘A’ with a pony tail and piercing thinks it’s witty. It may be witty but it won’t be on my program again I can assure you.”

Roxy Ryan, marketing director for publisher Hardie Grant, told Mumbrella the ad was meant to be “light hearted and a bit tongue in cheek” adding they would not “be looking to advertise with the Macquarie Network again actually, given this experience”.

The ad, created by agency Red Crayon, used a voiceover which said: “Ever wanted to tell dad to get routed? Well, this Father’s Day, you’ve got the opportunity to do exactly that. With over 600 new roads added this year, he’ll be sure to love being told to get routed. Hey dad, get routed.”

Straight after it played Hadley called out the ad as offensive, adding: “I don’t know how it made it through the checks and balances of the number one radio station of what is a large network, but I will be talking to the sales and commercial people and voicing my extreme displeasure. It might pass muster in other low brow places but it won’t pass muster here.”

He added: “We have certain standards that we adhere to here, we have a lot of fun and jokes but we don’t cross the lines of what should be decent and fair.

What the advertisers should realise is that many young mums listen to my program with many young children in the car, and it’s tough enough to negotiate my way through some of the stories I have to negotiate through on air without having offensive commercials.”

Hardie Grant’s Ryan told Mumbrella the campaign, which has an outdoor element and an ad spend of around $150,000, was meant to be targeting tradies and other people who spend a lot of time in their cars, and was a follow up from a campaign last year centred around telling dad to ‘Get lost’.

But she admitted she was surprised to have the ad called out on air by Hadley saying: “Given he works at the station and it’s not actually his call we certainly didn’t expect the actual presenter to be having a say. We have no problems placing the ad with the network.

“That’s what’s strange to me, they say they had a couple of people call in and complain and they’ve got to listen to their listeners, but to pull it because he finds it offensive is an odd one to me.”

She added: “If Ray Hadley gets to personally pick and choose which ads he thinks are fit for broadcast depending on what he’s offended by I don’t think he’s doing his listeners much of a favour either really.”

She also denied the campaign had been created to be deliberately provocative to gain PR exposure across the media, saying “we’re not that kind of company, we’re not looking to get sales through media controversy or anything like that”.

The Macquarie Radio Network confirmed the ad had been pulled from its 2GB (Sydney), 6PR (Perth) stations as well as 5AA (Adelaide) which it is the sales representative for.

Alex Hayes

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