As far as I know, that game is considered a Test for statistical purposes.

Adelaide Oval on the first day of the Test match between Australia and India, viewed from the Bradman Stand.

I also saw Zimbabwe play Australia at the SCG, but most of my Test match viewing has been at the MCG.

I’ve been to the Adelaide Oval for T20 state games, but this was my first time for international cricket. I went with young Michael, who was seeing his first day of Test cricket, aged 15, although he has been to an ODI game previously at the MCG.

Adelaide Oval is considered by many to be the most beautiful ground in the world, but from pictures I’ve seen, surely Newlands in Cape Town carries that mantle.

That said, Adelaide is a terrific place to watch cricket.

We sat in the Bradman Stand, out of the scorching sun, with a good view down the wicket. My father always watched cricket from “behind the bowler’s arm”, paying for premium seats in the old Southern Stand at the MCG.

He went to the cricket with a pair of binoculars, which were pretty handy in the days before big-screen replays.

The Bradman Stand is a strange construction, mainly designed I believe for corporate boxes. There seems to be a lot of wasted space and the actual room for ordinary spectators is fairly limited. The stand is being knocked down as part of the redevelopment, which will increase official capacity from around 32,000 to 50,000.

The total crowd on Tuesday was 20,000, about 6000 less than at the Big Bash game I went to in December. It was a good roll-up though considering the 36-degree heat.

Test cricket demographics

What struck me most about the crowd was how old most people were and how the vast majority were men.

Maybe the demographics were different in the Chappell Stand or on the hill, but in my area at least I felt young at 45.

I understand that’s pretty much the case for Test cricket; that most followers are men aged over 30. Hence the marketers are investing so much in the Big Bash to attract younger fans and women.

At the Big Bash though, spectators don’t clap the umpires out for the start of play; they don’t applaud any scoring shots by the opposition and they’re only interested in fours and sixes.

At Test cricket, spectators know when partnership milestones are reached and they show appreciation of good skills by visiting players. Those things are surely taught by elders and happily my son was monitoring partnerships.

I prefer Test cricket, which confirms the marketing stereotype, I guess.

As for the actual play, we saw more than 300 runs scored in a day and twin centuries by Michael Clarke and Ricky Ponting, so no complaints about the entertainment value.

I’ve criticised the captaincy of Clarke and Ponting before, but their batting is top notch.

I can’t say the same for India’s attack though. They looked very ordinary after the first session, apart from Zaheer Khan.

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.

However, the letter contained two new pieces of information.

The electoral commission has established an SMS reminder service, where people can register for a free reminder to vote.

Again, I say this is an unnecessary expense. You’d have to be living under a rock in the Simpson Desert to not realise there is an election next Saturday.

It’s like some organisations adopt technology for the sake of it, simply because they can and they think they should. I can’t see any strategic communications benefit in providing this “service”.

The other new item was an “Easy Voting Card” (pictured below).

Electors are asked to present the card (a cut-out ticket) when they vote. Presumably it simplifies identification, although I’ve never been asked for photo ID previously when voting. Usually, you just have to declare that you are who you say you are, and that you haven’t voted previously.

A message alongside the “Easy Voting Card” says: “You can vote without this card but it may take longer”.

I don’t mind tightening up identification for voting. People should be asked to present a licence, credit card, tax return or Medicare card. If they don’t have any of those, there should be the option of special electoral ID on application.

Or maybe we should have a national identification system?

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?

According to the press release, The Greyhound Hunnies are the face of greyhound racing in South Australia.

“They are the promotional girls, which (sic) promote greyhound racing to the public and the racing industry,” the release states.

“The Hunnies are all local Adelaide girls and the calendar is the best you’ll find anywhere nationally.

“The weather is getting better, bikinis will be coming out and so too will the best dogs in SA and from interstate. The stakes are higher and so is the prize money.

“Check out the competition and calendar here: http://www.grsa.com.au/hunnie_calendar.aspx.”

Sorry, but I just don’t see the connection between scantily clad young women and dogs.

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.

Browsing YouTube tonight I came across the original video of C’mon Aussie C’mon from the 1970s.

Cricket in that era went from an amateur sport to professional. The split damaged Australian cricket in the short term, but the game was better for it in the long run.

However, Test cricket was better marketed in the 1970s than it is today. A new campaign is needed to promote the traditional game.

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.

After today’s story appeared, a reader sent us an MMS message showing a picture and video of a nine-stack burger.

The photo and video sound like the work of kids who work at Hungry Jack’s. Good on them for having a bit of fun.

I can’t say I would fancy eating one of those meals myself.

I liked the Adelaide Advertiser story in which journalist Paul Ashenden took the taste test. He said it really “hit the spot”.

I could see the oil oozing out as I ate but hey – did I really expect anything else? Nope, it was everything a fast food burger has always been – minus lettuce, tomato, onion and pickles, of course – and I was enjoying it. But then, after I had finished, an aftertaste of fat kicked in – and this was a horrible thing.

I reckon your stomach would hate you afterwards.

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.

Most of my decisions are instinctive and I actually find it hard to describe the process because there isn’t one.

I simply choose what I think will be the most interesting story/photo to the greatest number of people.

Quite often that will be something quirky; it generally isn’t political.

I just went through a monthly exercise today where we look at the individual circulation figures for each paper we produced in the previous month.

The biggest selling edition had a front page headline “Unsafe text”. The story was local people commenting on a national survey about mobile phone users reading their partners’ text messages.

Significantly, most of the people interviewed were under the age of 21 … the population segment least in tune with newspapers.

There were some raised eyebrows around the office when I placed that story (with a photo) on the front page.

It sold 500 papers more (about six percent) than our weakest selling Friday edition, which was a cover dedicated to a national league soccer match in Mount Gambier.

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?

When the first bloke rang, I told him to email the information. “No worries,” he said, but nothing ever arrived. I told the second one that I was waiting for an email. I told the third one I never received an email and he offered to post me the information.

The fourth bloke, who incurred my wrath, said: “To be honest, we can’t email or post anything.” He tried to sell me a new phone plan with a $6 rebate for the last two months.

I asked him to remove me from the sales list. I wonder if I’ll get any more calls? Seriously, this sales pitch is overkill. If it wasn’t for NextG and the wider coverage area I’d switch today.

It was pretty exciting news for the Goldfields, as witnessed by the front page of today’s Kalgoorlie Miner (pictured above). Until now though, I haven’t commented on the success.

Firstly, the whole concept is a marvellous marketing promotion for the Monopoly people, and good on them. They will sell a lot of boards in the regional towns that were selected, and I doubt they will lose sales from capital cities.

I was trying to find a link to the nomination process, but couldn’t. My memory suggests that towns/regions for voting were submitted by the various State Governments or authorities.

Voting, I believe, was limited to one hit per day from each PC. Given the results, it is obvious that people in South Australia and places like Kalgoorlie voted more than once, but their votes were restricted to one from each PC per day.

Regional communities fared well because they have a greater sense of community spirit; I have no doubt of that.

I’m curious about the nominations for Victorian voting. Ray Dixon might comment, but Yarra Valley was a strange selection. Bright would have been a worthy voting option, also Bendigo, Gippsland Lakes and Mildura.