This week’s Pitch on Gruen Planet: Can Aussies be convinced to ignore the Melbourne Cup?
This week on Gruen Planet (ABC1, 9pm tomorrow night) Wil Anderson is joined by Todd Sampson (Leo Burnett), Russel Howcroft (Y&R Group), Lauren Miller Cilento (Harry M Miller Group) and Stuart Gregor (Liquid Ideas).
It’s that time of the year again. The Melbourne Spring Racing Carnival, the annual PR and clotheshorse race that stops the nation. What does Joan Collins, Sarah Jessica Parker, Dame Nellie Melba, Carson Kressley, Jean Shrimpton and Snoop Dog all have in common? They’ve all have been on the celebrity guest list at Flemington. How much do companies pay for their attendance? What are the responsibilities of a good tent guest? And the question of everyone’s lips, will Leo, Shane and Liz turn up this season?
On the Spin Cycle this week, Gruen looks at the marriage of death and publicity.
From the World of Advertising and image control, The Renovators will look at Hungry Jacks: new burgers, new slogan, new healthier repositioning. From next year, in NSW it will be mandatory to include kilojoule counts on fast food menus. Last week, Hungry Jacks got in early, the first chain to roll out the changes. What’s the value of that in PR terms? Is it possible to sell the Ultimate Double Whopper, voted the unhealthiest fast food in Australia, alongside plastic cups of raw vegetables?
And on The Pitch, returning to the racing theme, a campaign to convince Australian’s to ignore the Melbourne Cup.
Braincells Vs sense.
12 Comments
HERE’S A THOUGHT – HOW ABOUT THESE GUYS STOP PUSHING THEIR MEDIA PROFILES AND DO WHAT THEY’RE GOOD AT, RUNNING AGENCIES.
Is anyone still watching this shit?
The three stooges.
And we all know which one is ‘curly’.
Enough already!
I like Curly the most.
Yo Steve,
We all might be over this (I sure am), but middle Australia sure isn’t. Virtually every non-adland person I speak to loves this show and wants to know how accurately it represents our industry.
thing is roland, they’re probably better at this than they are running their agencies.
Dear Panel
As usual I enjoyed last night’s show very much. The pitch is particularly enlightening. It just shows you that there are at least two ways of looking at any issue. The contestants in the pitch never cease to amaze me how well they meet the challenge of getting across confronting messages in a plausable and convincing way. Well done again.
plausible
Have you noticed the big agencies don’t Gruen anymore? As the guys who supposedly set industry standards for excellence etc they have a responsibility to get on and show everyone else how it’s done. The ads on “The Pitch” have been dropping in quality (last night was an exception) so c’mon and get stuck in Mr Clemenger et al.
If you’ve got time in your agency to fanny about on made up pitches for Gruen then I suggest you probably have your priorities around the wrong way. The reason we set the industry standard is because we’re serious about what we do and don’t have the time or inclination to waste money and resources pandering to armchair ad psychologists.
It’s that attitude that has “advertising executive” just ahead of “used car salesman” as the least trusted or liked professions. You obviously also have no time to pat puppies. But I bet – somehow – you magically find loads of time to enter awards.
You lot sound like a bunch of bitter egotistical tossers. If you are representative of the Australian advertising ‘profession’ it’s no wonder Australian ads are all so brainless.