Sending spoof redundancy letters to journalists as a PR stunt – now there’s a good idea
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Those folks at Draft FCB sure are fans of hoaxing the trade press.
It’s not much more than three years since as editor of B&T I banned Draft FCB’s press releases from the magazine after they hoaxed us with a stunt involving claims that two of its creatives were leaving for a startup. It turned out to be to promote the new series of Mad Men.
This week saw a document arrive in the post from “The Australian Interior Authority” headed Notice of Your Redeployment.
It informed me that “as of the 24 July you services will no longer be required”. (Which would have been a tad more convincing if July 24 hadn’t already been and gone.)
The Australian Interior Authority URL (and you may already be ahead of me on this) is registered to Draft FCB.
Without revealing the client, Fenton PR the agency also working on this, has now been in touch to ask if we’d be writing about it. So I asked which titles the targeted trade journos had been targeted.
Obligingly, she informs me they include 66 journalists, with staff on Fairfax Media’s The Age, The Sydney Morning Herald, the Sun-Herald,The Sunday Age and the Australian Financial Review included.
As in the Fairfax Media that’s been making journalists redundant.
I did ask the PR person whether this was in good taste. She said she’d ask “the power that be” and get back to me.
Apparently the client will be revealed on Monday. I look forward to seeing the coverage they get.
6.25pm update: Fenton tells me:
“The letters to the journalists were designed as part of our broader campaign. Their wording is deliberately far fetched, ridiculous and extreme. You will note these letters have been dated well into the future (2021) and were not formulated with the intent to cause personal or individual distress to journalists.
“The campaign has been devised to raise awareness of an issue in which journalists play an integral role. We are in the process of following up the journalists who have received the letter and so far the feedback around the campaign – as can also be noted by the levels of response on social media – has been of interest and intrigue.”
Tim Burrowes
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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Yeah, I’ve been seeing some billboards relating to this around the inner west and was wondering what it was for – though not enough to make me want to visit the site. (The URL was actually too small – and long – to be read at a distance.) My guess was a video game, but having checked Draft’s client list, they don’t appear to be working with any of the big players. Unless it’s a new client.
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Very tasteless. Malicious you might even say.
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We are all talking about it. Job done
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“Deliberately far fetched, ridiculous and extreme”?
Have these people actually seen any of Fairfax’s recent communiques with its editorial staff?
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They’re relaunching The Handmaid’s Tale. Bad luck, Tim, your new job is at Jezebels.
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I’m reminded of a comment by one of the writers for Private Eye in Britain in its heyday.
They worked and worked on making their articles about politics and business as far fetched, ridiculous and extreme as they could — and then found they were less far fethced than what actually happened.
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At first glance it looks a lot like the amazing work that Ninch Inch Nails did for Year Zero as showcased at DesignEX this year? I apologise that i can’t remember the agency that did that work to credit them.
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@ anom – tasteless/malicious – they certainly know their target audience then
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idiotic agency dreams up media stunt that insults media, even more idiotic PR firm does the dirty work for them
is this really the standard of work going on in the consumer sector?
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I thought I read somewhere that the Australian Interior Authority was a part of the Tobacco companies campaign against the “nanny state”, etc?
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Smells like the nicotine-encrusted hands of the Tobacco lobby are elbow deep in this one.
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The date of the letter is 22 July 2021. In that context the 24 July date set for your redeployment makes sense.
Clever spin on the future but perhaps too discrete for the momentarily stressed initial recipients.
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Hi Matt,
The date was actually listed at the top of the page as 22 Jul 21. Less obvious at first glance. Personally I missed that it was meant to be 2021.
Cheers,
Tim – Mumbrella
Think John (@ 3.43) is onto something but if it’s big T it;s a political ad and they’d have to the ‘authorised by’….. or I could be wrong
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Both of those scam letters seem funny to me. And I can imagine that receiving it would grab your attention at least make you think. But I guess people are different. Remind me never to send you any press articles in the future as the humour seems to have gone over your head, or hit you in the nuts instead.
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@Marcus. 42 Entertainment were responsible for the Year Zero arg campaign. Amazing work..
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That draftFCB release was obviously a fake. A bit sad that u fell for it
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Hi Pepe,
Gullible as I may be, I didn’t fall for it. I think you may have misread the article above.
Cheers,
Tim – Mumbrella
just wondering if Pepe read the headline of this article? what part of ‘Sending spoof redundancy letters to journalists as a PR stunt – now there’s a good idea’ did he not understand to be a fake
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Aha! Client has been revealed!
The link now redirects to http://ourfreedom.com.au/
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Wow. thank god it’s not part of an ad for tabacco or beer!
I wasn’t too sure about this campaign when I thought it might be commercial but pretty impressed with it now. We ARE complacent about the freedoms we have so I’m happy to endorse this campaign.
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Me too. Got my attention
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Sven – take a breath buddy… This is a very compelling idea. We get inundated with press releases – this cuts thru massively and conveys the idea without explanation.
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