‘Vice’ clients agency boss ordered to cancel interview
The boss of British American Tobacco’s ad agency G2 was ordered by his bosses in the US to pull out of a video interview with Mumbrella on Friday.
The Mumbo Report interview with G2’s new Australian GM Ed Commander was organised in mid-July. But on Thursday night, his bosses in the US intervened, requesting that we not ask about his previous statement to Mumbrella that he was looking for “vice” clients.
It was suggested that we instead ask about working for clients who face “challenges”.
When we stated that our policy is to not agree to preconditions before any interviews, Commander decided to withdraw.
In June Commander told Mumbrella:
“Our experience is in vice products. We want to look at working on specialist projects with large corporations in categories such as junk food – products high in fat and salt – and also build on our relationships with alcohol clients.”
In May, Commander’s colleague Leo Bajzert wrote one of the most commented upon guest posts of the year for Mumbrella when he argued against plain packaging for tobacco.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QLkLNCQVJyY&feature=youtu.be
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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who cares
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Hi Anonymous,
You might. As your IP address suggersts you seem to be part of the same happy holding company family.
Cheers,
Tim – Mumbrella
Not only was it was a dumb thing to say then, it’d be a dumb thing to have to try and defend saying, even now.
Thank You for Smoking may have made it seem kinda cool to admit to selling death, but in the real world that kinda thing doesn’t wash.
I’m not surprised his boss tugged the leash.
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bahahahahaha. Anonymous, you’ve been schooled:)
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I’m pretty sure no alcohol company will want to link themselves to tobacco in any way, and surely not through a vice-specialising agency?
The fear that alcohol advertising will be severely restricted worldwide in coming years is real – see Thailand, an important market.
You can hear the campaigns already rolling in the UK and AU.
They might want to drop that ‘vice’ tag now.
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So, Ed Commander’s head commander has turned vice into a challenge!
I think the look to the ceiling at 0.51 was interesting and showed a promise of things to come, but then I was left confused and disappointed with the hands on the chin and the checking of the watch (at 2.25 and 2.43 respectively). I was ready to give up, but then Tim stands up and checks the backdrop at 3.24 and showed depth – of the set, at least.
Then towards the finally I was finally sold with the look straight down the barrel at 4.17. The shoulder shrug at 4.42 just seemed to be the icing on the cake.
4 stars.
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It was an idiotic thing to say.
Not surprised he was tugged out, if only for his own career.
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Burrowes says, between the lines, “I’ve paid for the studio time, so I’ll damn well use the studio time.”
I’m not surprised that WPP wanted an agency to stick its neck out that far. I don’t know Ed Commander. But I hear he’s a good operator. And the work they do for BAT could be of interest to all agencies. Maybe a few clients too.
I worked for with G2 some years ago. Their BAT work is a good example of trade marketing at it’s best. It’d be worth their while and our while shedding some light on the art of “dark marketing”.
Hope this interview happens soon when Ed Commander’s bosses say it’s okay for him to talk to you – maybe just let him apologise for his hyperbole. Then let him answer your nasty questions as I’m sure he’d be quite capable of doing.
In fact, Tim, You don’t come across as a nasty interviewer. Hell, you were even nice to Alan Jones. And there’s a man you could have railed with a few more spikey questions.
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correction: I’m not surprised that WPP didn’t want an agency to stick its neck out that far.
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Is there any ad campaign Ed would draw the line on? Mercenary recruitment to assist Gaddafi or the Syrian regime? Organ donations by the dirt poor to help the filthy rich? Brothel staff recruitment in Asian refugee camps? Reputational rebirthing for Balkan or Rwandan genocide bosses? Spinning Indonesian abattoirs back into respectability, even if not much changes? All perfectly legal … hey come on Ed, if there are bucks in it! Let’s hear from you.
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Agree with Aw, cmon…
Ed’s quote was an idiotic way to frame their “dark arts” niche. More meeja training for that lad. It’s an interesting marketing area that scares the shit out of wowsers. I like that.
@SC. I suspect he’d draw the line at you as you’re clearly an irredeemable tit with a warped sense of equivocacy and an over-active imagination.
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It’s just PR fail after PR fail from Big Tobacco these days, isn’t it? They should stick to the shadows and just let their industry die it’s slow and inevitable death. It’s only fitting, really.
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Saves having to fumigate the studio though doesn’t it.
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I can’t believe I watched the entire video. And laughed at parts.
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He should have taken part in the interview. Now they are in the spot light, an agency pushing products that kill…
I love their own comment too “who cares”.
Many people who have lost loved ones to cancer caused by smoking would be the answer you unethical aholes!
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I know Ed and he is an excellent operator. And no… I don’t work for G2.
Given the silent sarcasm of the clip you posted Tim, I can only imagine how imbalanced your interview would have been, so G2 were right in asking Ed not to participate. Poor form!
And opening it up to then create an open slather forum for character assination is even poorer form. Perhaps you have forgotten the session by Sean Cummins at Mumbrella 360 about how easily a persons character can be torn to shreds. And yet you seem to delight in creating the opportunity.
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@Tony,
The reality is that Ed made his bed and now he has to lie in it. Working to help a tobacco company is always going to raise eyebrows amongst anyone with a fully functioning moral compass.
You can try and draw equivilence with alcohol/oil/pharma companies but none of them really descent to same level as tobacco when it comes to putting profit before people with blatent lies, cover ups, targetting the vulnerable and constant skullduggery thrown into the mix.
Without knowing for sure, I imagine Tim would have asked the questions that most people would ask someone like Ed:
1. How do you plan to market such a heavily restricted product?
2. What attracted you to the product?
3. Have you had trouble recruiting people to work with Big Tobacco?
4. How do you reconcile the fact that what you do will likely lead to kids taking up smoking?
5. Some form of ‘How do you sleep at night?’ question.
Asking those questions wouldn’t make Tim a character assassin. They’re the questions I’d love to hear Ed answer, if only for the lesson (particularly on questions 4 and 5) on how to answer a question without ever really answering the question.
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Hear hear Shane.
Ed commander has chosen to help market products that kill. I am not slathering Ed Commander. I do feel that he surely must be unethical and possess little to no morals for working to help promote tobacco in the year 2011.
Back in the 60’s people would ignorantly work in tobacco and help promote it. It is 2011. You want to work for unethical practices today, like Ed Commander does – then be prepared to be uncovered and publicly noted.
Ed has a choice and he has chosen to help companies who kill people. Why should he not be named publicly for his immorality?
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@Shane
You seem to be missing the point.
The reality is that the posting was a sarcastic attempt to create a forum for others to denegrate someone who had an opinion that not everyone would necessarily agree with. It was nothing more than a journalistic hissy fit and there is no escaping the fact that it is simply poor form.
As for your other questions? They only display how little you know about the restrictions of marketing in the category and how naive you are about e.g booze soaked promotions in pubs and clubs that encourage binge drinking as a right of passage for kids.
None of us are saints in this business. Our job is to encourage people to buy stuff they probably don’t really need and sometimes can’t afford. We don’t provide solutions for world peace or cure liver cancer in alcoholics or lung cancer in smokers. We just sell stuff.
Now go and fill out your sensus before you get fined $150 a day for not doing so.
And tomorrow….sell more stuff!
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Shane, stop being a tit.
If you had even half a clue outside your own self-serving agenda, you’d know that asking about cigs is the least interesting thing to ask about G2, globally.
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@AdGrunt,
Was there a need to call me a tit? My self-serving agenda? I’d be interested to learn what that is; since you seem so well informed perhaps you could enlighten me?
As for Commander:
“It’s not who I am underneath, but what I do, that defines me.”
— Batman
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Yes Shane. There was. Quoting Batman only reinforces that view.
Your self-serving agenda is pretty much your earlier confused, wowser-filled post with leading and loaded questions about tobacco marketing.
Between you and Agency Ethics, you seem to have some warped belief that what G2 are up to is a heinous crime and you’re here to expose that. It isn’t, you aren’t. Get over it.
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@Adgrunt.
re: Batman… I was being facetious. Geez.
How was my earlier post self-serving? What’s my agenda? Are you just throwing words together ad hoc?
What G2 do isn’t illegal. It’s immoral, but not illegal.
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Shane – “immoral” is a personal, subjective view.
Your rhetoric and proposed questioning serves only to pursue this personal, subjective agenda.
Therefore it’s self-serving. And you’re a tit.
Q.E.D.
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Adrunt you might want to do your research and find out who simon chapman actually is before you casually denigrate him while failing to address his point
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Tonz and Grunter are the reason why Ad Industry Exec’s rank second to investment bankers for doing the least for society.
I bet if you were both in London you wouldn’t be out with your brooms helping to clean up. I think Shano probably would…
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Dang, I was going to answer back about how you still haven’t clarified what my supposedly personal agenda is, but then you went ahead and wrote QED, which pretty much stopped me in my tracks.
Well played, sir, well played.
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Sven. I don’t give a toss if Simon is the Dark Lord himself. He didn’t make a point to counter. Just a jumble of daft suggestions. Hence my assertion that he himself is a tit.
The issue here is a mouthy berk failed to turn up for an interview. It might have been a tough one. However trotting out a personal agenda based on ad hominem, fantasy and wowserism will be noticed.
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Humiliating
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