Subaru sponsors column in The Australian praising SA premier Mike Rann
How the Subaru sponsored column concluded
A Subaru-sponsored opinion column in The Weekend Australian has drawn flack for siding politically with outgoing SA premier Mike Rann.
Media agency Starcom brokered a deal which sees Subaru sponsor a weekly ‘Most intelligent decision of the week’ column.
The brand gets no say over the content of the column which is written by The Australian’s editorial team.
This weekend’s column was written in praise of Labor politican Rann’s decision to give the okay to the Olympic Dam open cut mine. However, the advertising deal has been criticised by the South Australian Liberal Party.
Hendrik Gout, chief of staff to David Ridgway, leader of the opposition in the SA Legislative Council told Mumbrella:
“Who at Subaru made the decision to headline this as ‘The most intelligent decision of the week’? The copy could have been written by Rann’s media team. And on what did they base their conclusions?”
The Australian told Mumbrella that the choice of content was “entirely at the editor’s discretion”.
Gout added: “As an advertiser, I wouldn’t feel comfortable handing that amount of control over my messaging to a newspaper. As a media or creative agency, I wouldn’t either. And as a newspaper, I don’t think this is a good commercial decision for them to make.”
The sponsorship campaign was launched last month as part of an integrated push to position the Subaru Liberty as the car of choice for the intelligent driver.
The News Limited paper declined to disclose the cost of the deal. An ad of the size of the ‘Most intelligent decision of the week’ costs around $15,000 at ratecard.
Odd column to sponsor I would have thought.
Political stuff is bound to crop up a lot, guaranteeing to annoy 50% of Subaru’s market every time.
And they pay to do this!
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cool
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I drive a Subi, for one reason. It is so fricken reliable(.)
I am on my second Subi now and both have never had any issues. That is why I drive a Subi. I thought that their advertising earlier this year (might have been late last year?) of the floating drivers was awful, however it didn’t put me off buying one.
Admittedly,. why they pulled out of the rally was interesting..?
Subi’s – great, nippy and reliable.
I wonder why they do not have a killer 4×4 to challenge the Landcruiser..?
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Another lazy sponsorship deal brokered by a media agency. Who would have thought it!?!
Why do clients spend their money on this crap?
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I agree with Subaru Driver. I love my WRX and wouldn’t swap to anything… except perhaps a vintage muscle car. Anyway – Subaru’s marketing team need a swift kick up the bazonga’s. They have been rolling out the same tired old stuff for years, and this simply represents another lax decision. Time for a shake up Subi!
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