In the wake of Prime Minister John Key’s resignation, Barnes, Catmur & Friends Dentsu managing partner and executive creative director Paul Catmur has a confession to make.
The National Party has been forced to make a few rugby analogies in recent days as it deals with the fallout from Nicky Hager’s Dirty Politics. But it’s used a rowing analogy in its new TVC to try and show Kiwis it’s a smooth, well-oiled, economic machine that’s taking the country in the right direction and that its opponents are bumbling idiots.
As in 2011, government once again handed out $3.28 million dollars to the various political parties. But while the spoils remained same, the number of recipients increased from 11 to 17 political parties for this year’s allocation. The question now, however, is what the parties plan to spend the money on, and what they hope to acheive through their pre-election campaigns. So, in an effort to find out a little bit more about Labour’s promotional moves, we sent a few questions to the party’s campaign manager David Talbot. Here’s what he had to say.
Facebook has revealed a series of insights on how the Kiwi political parties are doing in the lead up to the 2014 general election. And given that 1.8 million Kiwis log in to Facebook on a daily basis and that ‘election’ was the second-most commonly used phrase on the site in 2013 (only bettered by Pope Francis), the social media channel is becoming an increasingly important space for politicians to share their policies—or general vitriol—with potential voters.
While conspiracy theorists might infer that St Patrick’s Day has some deeper meaning or historically significant origins, we all know that the day is actually just a great excuse to wear green hat, sip on a dark brew and hop around like a leprechaun for a whole day. And given that it has become such a jubilant day of unrestrained revelry, businesses, brands and politicians all take it as an opportunity to get some additional exposure. Here’s a breakdown of some of the interesting St Patrick’s Day-themed efforts that emerged this year.
Kiwi film-maker Jonathan King has transformed The Wolf of Wall Street’s trailer, imagining John Key in the dizzying world of money making and dwarf throwing. It’s a “brand new New Zealand biopic success story of ambition, fortune and being pretty relaxed about things”.
Every now and then a gem of an email comes to us – this time it’s from a “a digital agency that cares about New Zealand and Kiwis” that’s giving ordinary Joe Public the chance to slap John Key with a fish.
It’s all about the GCSB, bro!
A crowd-sourced campaign to stop the GCSB bill, which would grant the Government greater surveillance powers over New Zealand residents and citizens, has reached its funding goal on PledgeMe.
How much would you pay to directly message the Prime Minister on Facebook? Ten dollars seems reasonable. Also, changes to Facebook news feed on the horizon.
In an apparent first for New Zealand, Prime Minister John Key will be hosting a one-hour radio show this Friday, 30th September from 2pm on RadioLIVE, and he’ll be chatting with a few special guests, including Sir Richard Branson and our other Dear Leader Richie McCaw.
For over ten years now, Tourism New Zealand’s 100% Pure New Zealand campaign has been a staple brand for marketing New Zealand to the world. But whether we ought to be laying such a pure claim at all has come under fire on many occasions, most recently on BBC programme Hardtalk where John Key was left sweating after host Stephen Sackur put some tough questions to the Prime Minister about the clean and green image on which New Zealand prides itself.
Lionel Richie remixes himself for (and possibly sells his soul to) Walkers crisps.
Jack Black pans Orange in a spoof Gulliver’s Travels trailer for Orange.
Bud Light’s take on the consequences of the swear jar.
Arcade Fire, Chris Milk and Google’s …
Our Dear Leader, tourism minister and meat-sizzling, beer drinking Kiwi bloke John Key has dished out $5 million of marketing cash in order to promote eight of the country’s biggest tourist regions.
Tourism, like most sectors, has had a tough 2009 (although Kevin Rudd’s New Zealand ski season stimulus package certainly seemed to soften the blow).
With the world supposedly heading to hell in an economic handcart, it was inevitable that fewer international guests would grace our distant foreign shores. But …
The striking image of a muscly lumberjack body with a John Key face has won NAB’s September Newspaper Ad of the Month.
The Stop the Chop ad calls for action against the government making a new law that will allow people to chop down urban trees without permission. It …
Our beloved leader looks a little, well, star struck, meeting the big man. And we don’t mean Obama.
John Key reads the “Top 10 Reasons to Visit New Engla … New Zealand!”
