Easy voting card
I received a letter from the Electoral Commission of South Australia on Friday, reminding me that voting on March 20 is compulsory and letting me know where to vote.
According to the commission’s website, the letter is meant to be sent from Monday, March 15 to all electors.
A total of 1,092,762 South Australians are enrolled to vote.
At the standard postage rate of 55 cents a letter, that’s a mail-out cost of $601,019 plus printing, maybe a million dollars altogether, even if the postage was discounted.
It’s unnecessary expenditure, in my opinion. (more…)
Greyhound Hunnies
No disrespect to these babes, but why would they want to associate their bodies with greyhound racing?
I’ve got nothing against the dish lickers. It’s a legitimate industry; it keeps people employed, dogs fit and trainers busy.
It needs to be marketed, but bikini girls? (more…)
New Victoria Bitter ad
I rather like the new advertisement for Victoria Bitter, which I saw on Thursday night for the first time on SBS during The Ashes coverage. It’s very funny in an understated, ironic kind of way.
The marketing pitch for The Regulars is to present VB as a drink for anyone, whereas previously it was promoted as a working man’s beer to quench a “hard-earned thirst”.
As liquor industry website The Shout explains, the ad captures groups of Aussies, who share pastimes, professions, a passion or some other leftfield connection, marching under banners like: Blokes punching above their weight (dags with sexy babes); Men who’ve had their arm in a cow; Guys who peaked in high school; Meat tray winners; Blokes who checked a sickie to be here; Manscapers; Guys who claim to have punched a shark; The Brewers and; The miniature bat signers, etc.
There are celebrity cameos from Michael Clarke, Wally Lewis, Paul De Gelder, Scott Cam, Molly Meldrum, Peter Russell Clarke, Dean Jones, Michael Klim, Billy Brownless and Greg Evans.
“At their heart, our new VB ads are about a beer at the pub with your mates but they’re brought to life in a way that is uniquely Australian,” CUB marketing director Peter Sinclair said.
“There are the classic VB trademarks but it’s definitely a new take – both from a creative and launch to market standpoint.”
The commercial was filmed around Ballarat, involving about 1500 extras.
It’s good to see some quality advertising on television.
VB ads have always been pretty good. Watch and enjoy this one (below) from the 1970s.
Apart from the clothes and hairstyles, it’s fascinating to see people drinking from bottles, instead of cans or stubbies.
Hungry Jack’s quad stack burger
We ran a story on the front page today about the success of Hungry Jack’s quad stack burger. This was a limited-time promotion where people could buy super-size burgers made to order.
The standard quad stack comprised four beef patties, four slices of cheese and bacon in a standard hamburger bun with no salad.
It contained something like 1080 calories and 71g of fat.
Hungry Jack’s copped a lot of negative flak from health food nazis, but the quad stack was a marketing success. (more…)
Story selection vindicated
Publishing a newspaper isn’t rocket science; it’s common sense really. The influence of an editor is most noticeable in story selection and the emphasis given to particular stories.
While changes to the style and direction of a newspaper might affect sales in the longer term, casual buyers are won by word of mouth and a strong front page.
In my experience about 90 percent of newspaper buyers are regular, probably a bit more than than. A good front page or a special feature might swing five percent in extra sales. (more…)
Brief comment on underwear stunt
There is a bar in Melbourne that’s been offering free alcohol to women who remove their underwear.
I saw a media release today from the Australian Hotels Association (AHA) condemning the stunt.
The AHA spokesman said the venue “is not a traditional pub and is a product of liberal liquor licensing laws in Victoria. Also, it is not a member of the AHA.”
He went on to say:
We are continuing to work hard to ensure that all licensed venues promote responsible consumption of alcohol and we believe this promotion is inconsistent with this objective. Quite apart from that, I am surprised that a mainstream entertainment venue would consider that this type of sexist promotion could be seen as acceptable given normal community standards.
Laudable sentiments coming from an organisation that effectively supports unlimited poker machines in South Australian pubs.
I wonder if they would have spoken out against the underwear stunt if the bar had belonged to the AHA?
The tiny town of Turriff
I drove through the tiny town of Turriff on my way to and from Mildura. It’s in the Mallee between Hopetoun and Ouyen.
That’s a desolate drive. Like other wheat growing areas of Australia, farms have got bigger, families smaller, populations diminished, shops closed and services gone.
These towns once had much more than the silos and derelict railway sidings they retain today. There were schools, shops, hotels and football teams.
I don’t want to belittle Turriff, but the entrance sign caught my fancy and I couldn’t resist a comment.
It proclaims: “Turriff — original home of the Mallee Field Days.”
That’s sad really. Not only has Turriff lost much of its community, it lost the annual farm machinery field days to the nearby and (only slightly) bigger hamlet of Speed.
The tale reminds me of my long-held negative view toward any town which claimed itself to be the “gateway” to somewhere.
That usually means the town itself isn’t worth stopping in; continue to your destination.
Myrtleford had a sign calling itself “Gateway to the Alps”. Myrtleford has a lot to offer and that was a stupid sign.
