SMH: We say no to one person’s influence
The Sydney Morning Herald has launched a new campaign promoting it as the independent choice.
A TV ad shot in the SMH newsroom by Whybin\TBWA\Tequila broke last night. And a full page ad started running in the SMH today.
In what appears to be a coded swipe at the Rupert Murdoch-led News Limited, the copy reads:
The Sydney Morning Herald proudly says no.
No to fear.
No to favours.
No to pulling punches.
No to watering it down
No to one person’s influence.
No to compromises, and no to agendas.
Editorial staff featured in the TV ad include editor Amanda Wilson; the editor of smh.com.au, Darren Goodsir; editor of the Herald’s tablet edition, Stephen Hutcheon; political editor, Peter Hartcher; economics editor, Ross Gittins; investigations editor, Anne Davies; photographer Kate Geraghty; investigations writer, Kate McClymont; restaurant critic, Terry Durack; and readers’ editor, Judy Prisk.
Credits:
- Executive Creative Directors: Matty Burton & Dave Bowman
- Planning Director: Hristos Varouhas
- Creative Team: Dez Anderson & James Ross-Edwards
- Senior Account Manager: Bryony Marks
- Project Manager: Amelia Babos
- Producer: Nick Simkins
- Editor: Brad Hurt
- Cinematographer: Lee Mariano
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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Very Tony Abbot, (which I’m guessing wasn’t their intention) – no to everything.
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She protests too much me thinks!
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Perfect.
Now, if you’ll excuse me, I have a sudden urge to buy a newspaper.
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A ‘coded swipe’ at News? I’d say thinly veiled. Very thinly.
Way to stoop low, SMH.
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I love the smh ipad app.
I enjoy the editorial too.
But surely this “no to negatives” campaign is “pulling punches” at the one-man-Murdoch’s infuence & News Ltd’s agenda?
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YES to left wing bias
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Would be interested to know the aim of this? Not sure how many everyday people would know enough and/ or be bothered about who they may be attacking. If that’s the case and there is no perceived problem that they are solving, then I am not sure this is the best message for bringing in more readers/ positioning themslves in a more compelling way.
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Hopefully SMH does not say anything “prouldy”
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We say “no” to stopping autoplay videos.
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Perfect ad campaign, going to the heart of how fundamentally different Fairfax is to its main competitor. Well done Whybin. Someone in that agency actually gets what it’s all about, and why that difference matters. As for stooping too low – hardly! It’s fact. Also, last time I checked The Aus was sticking the boot in wherever it could.
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all it needed at the bottom was “no to tapping phones”
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No to being able to turn off autoplay ads?
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No to auto-refresh.
No to leaving piles of free copies throughout Sydney marked ‘Included in the price of ….’
No to having no paywall strategy except to watch News and wait and hope.
No to tidying up a very cluttered website.
No to merging the AFR with Business Day. No.
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No to having a decent sports section.
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No to exercise
No to anyone under 50
No to joy in work
“We say no”
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“No to stop publishing an online tabloid, when users are screaming out for an online broadsheet…”
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A wonderful insight: a campaign that spends all of its energy saying what it’s not (essentially it’s not the News of the World, though it’s web site longs to be).
So long as these folk maintain their internally referenced focus on what journos say at closed shop lunch parties and awards dinners they are on a fast track to oblivion.
It’s about the reader, folks. (A case where the Oz’s Mark Day got something right – on Saturday). And the readers have moved on…..
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No to anyone who lives west of Surry Hills
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I think managemne or teh agency have seriosly misundersttod teh changing dynamics in the media landscape if they see news as thier biggest threat or easiest win. Money well spent?
Probably explains the share price though
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Things must be getting desperate at the Mosman Herald …
Thumbs up in the use of space on the print ad though; someone has been listening to The Newspaper Works 😀
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We say ‘oh, no’.
Oh, and no to anything not on the Left.
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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WOdjCb4LwQY
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“No” to circulation increases
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@sub-editor or ‘proudy’
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“No” to more stories about dogs being refused their puppy-uccinos in Mosman cafes! “No” to utterly tedious stories about chefs and truffles on page three practically every edition! “No” to the Good Weekend going completely up its own arse! “No” to Alan Moir drawing the exact same Tony Abbott/Popeye cartoon every single day (that wasn’t even remotely funny two years ago!)
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Sad, sad, sad.
All that meat and no potatoes!!
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It’s a Hywood ad. Back to the past. Back to the journo coolaid. Over and out.
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@paul q
Agree completely. Marketing to mirrors may get you so jollies and a slap on the back around the office but it the audience who read the product, so it’s the audience who count. Missed the mark.
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What drivel from Fairfax. They forgot to mention:
YES to Bob Brown.
YES to the ALP left faction.
Fairfax is simply the media arm of the ALP-Greens collective. Everyone knows it. Denial is futile.
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How pointless. They’re preaching to the converted. SMH readers already think they’re better than News Ltd tabloid readers.
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The SMH says “No to watering it down… No to compromises, and no to agendas”? Please, beside the ABC, there isn’t a media organisation in the country that’s more self-censoring to promote its progressive agendas. The SMH deliberately doesn’t report on certain issues or certain people if they contradict their advocacy-journalism worldview. What a bunch of hypocrites.
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“No to agendas” haha, the biggest left wing rag there is … Maybe SMH should be titled ALP Newsletter in the interests of honesty.
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But say yes to everyting the pro labor Canberra press gallery says.
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No to investigative journalism.
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All squeaky clean are you SMH
What about the ALP database?
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A few Nos from the ALP puritans:
Say no to smoking (plain packaging and higher taxes)
Say no to drinking (alcopops and higher taxes)
Say no to gambling (pokies legislation
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TRITE!
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Yeah, but what still turns me off their paper is what they ‘YES’ to.
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No to profits.
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Does that mean Hartcher will stop being Rudd’s mouthpeice and have an orignal balanced thought?
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As a 30ish high earning urban professional, intelligent and slighty right of centre I assume I’m Part of the target demographic, but these guys are right up their own arse and I have zero interest. I’m supposed to be anxious about Rupert Murdoch??
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What, they all agree with other? And that makes them independent?
All those bobbed haircuts and glasses on noses and mock-serious frowns and red-lipped sanctimony; the IT guys are out the back smoking and drinking. That would make a better ad.
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No to Tim Tebow
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