(Above: the campaign for The Atlantic. Click for larger image, and to read the inspirational small print).
You've probably already caught up with the latest round of Chairman Rupert versus the evil empire of Google.
If not, as usual the starting point is Mumbrella, here, which has a link to the Sky News interview, in which the chairman shows that (a) he's dropped the plot, and (b) for all his talking the talk, doesn't really have a clue about the intertubes.
He could, right at this moment of course, drop any Google linking by using an anti-robot protocol, but somehow he must think a wolf routine, huffing and puffing outside the door of the pigs, will produce some kind of meltdown.
Mr Murdoch, whose newspapers include The Times and The Sun, told Sky News Australia: “I think we will [remove our websites from Google’s search index] but that’s when we start charging.”
He added: "The people who simply just pick up everything and run with it – steal our stories, we say they steal our stories - they just take them. That's Google, that's Microsoft, that's Ask.com, a whole lot of people ... they shouldn't have had it free all the time, and I think we've been asleep." (here)
You've probably already caught up with the 'meh' from Google, no doubt feeling safe, thinking digital bricks do a better job than wood or straw, but you can catch up on more about that here, in a neat summary of the phony war to date, including a link to Hitwise, which provides this little gem:
In fact, on a weekly basis Google and Google news are the top traffic providers for WSJ.com account for over 25% of WSJ.com's traffic. Even more telling. According to Experian Hitwise data, over 44% of WSJ.com visitors coming from Google are "new" users who haven't visited the domain in the last 30 days.
I know it's all old news, but still it's delicious, like finding a hard copy of The Australian in the airport lounge, then throwing it away unread. Think again? Doesn't that mean that at some time in the past there was actual thinking, so that now you can think again?
By golly, seeing the likes of Philip Adams and Ray Martin plastered all over billboards telling me to think again has almost produced several attacks of catatonia. Asleep. Again.
If you've been lucky and missed the campaign, you can catch up with it here at The Inspiration Room. But you've been warned. Adults only, and the only decent argument I've come across for Conroy's internet filter scheme.
When was the last time you were inspired? Reading Janet Albrechtsen or Paul Kelly?
Is that a trick question? Can I give you some lollies instead?
One embittered soul here at Campaign Brief sounded like my doppelganger:
... surely the premise of ‘Think. Again’ is flawed. It’s patronising and suggests that The Australian is some kind of saviour of our collective national intellect.
The brand and the questions in the TVC act like they're oblivious to a little thing called the internet.
If its job is to reinforce to existing readers the value of The OZ then it'll probably do ok. If its job is to increase readership or circulation - then I don't like its chances.
But I digress. Watching the death throes of whales is always a compelling experience, even as you hope they don't end up as an entree on some free intertubes sushi fest.
No, no, I'm not even going to take a cheap shot at The Australian for the suggestion that it's been stealing content (here):
International advertising agency Euro RSCG has accused News Ltd of ripping off its "Think. Again." campaign from the The Atlantic, which began this time last year to accompany the relaunch of the 152-year-old title ...
... Both advertising campaigns aim to position their respective titles as "thought leaders" that challenge their readership to re-evaluate issues that matter to them.
Michael Fanuele, chief strategy officer in Euro's New York office, which created the Atlantic campaign, said: "If this is the rip-off it appears to be, it's pathetic and perhaps even worse, ironic. They've copied an idea meant to inspire original thinking."
... Both advertising campaigns aim to position their respective titles as "thought leaders" that challenge their readership to re-evaluate issues that matter to them.
Michael Fanuele, chief strategy officer in Euro's New York office, which created the Atlantic campaign, said: "If this is the rip-off it appears to be, it's pathetic and perhaps even worse, ironic. They've copied an idea meant to inspire original thinking."
Rip-off? Content? Moi? Quelle horreur. Original thinking? Copied?
Oh no, only Google do that!
For its campaign Euro took 14 questions from the pages of the magazine, which often poses questions in its headlines, and brought them to life with neon billboards strategically placed in cities.
The Atlantic declined to comment.
Joe Talcott, head of marketing and circulation at News Ltd acknowledged the similarities and even expressed regret over them.
"I would be lying if I said that I wished that campaign didn't exist. But in 30 years [of marketing] I have seen so many campaigns that are similar all over the place.
"The internet has also made it much easier to find them out," Mr Talcott said.
Mr Talcott said he was only made aware of the fact after the campaign had begun last month, a claim supported by Monty Noble, the creative director of The Australian's ad agency, The Brandshop.
Mr Noble said he was more concerned about a National Geographic Channel ad campaign that used the same line because of its part ownership by a News Corporation-owned division, Fox Cable Networks.
Asked whether he believed he had been hoodwinked by the agency, Mr Talcott said: "They came forward with the National Geographic [campaign] so my impression is that they were not trying to cover it up."
Oh well, we owe that to The Age, but hey, we're not pretending to do any original thinking here. We never think again, because we ain't thunked any time recent, and don't plan to thunk again anytime in the future.
Anyhoo, this was only meant to be a passing intro to the real bit of evil. That's right The Punch are at it again. If you go here, you can get live blogging shot by shot coverage of Tiger Woods, playing the first round in the Australian Masters.
Here's Paul Coglan's intro:
A TV rights technicality meant you couldn’t watch Tiger’s first round at the Australian Masters live. Russell Gould of the Herald Sun followed him around the course live-blogging the event. You can replay it over the jump.
Woods finished the clubhouse leader at six under par.
If you have a spare minute, add your stupid Australian question for Tiger to our thread.
Ah shucks, the round's over, gosh darn it, and I missed it. But don't you just love those words "a TV rights technicality".
So much for intellectual property rights, and Chairman Rupert carrying on about people stealing property. Why not station a guy with a computer on the course and live blog the event instead, as a way of undermining the coverage of those entitled to run the broadcasts, which just so happen to be Fox Sports (now there's an irony) and Nine, for FTA.
You see Woods had an early 7.30 am tee off time, and neither of the broadcasters was prepared to get out of bed until lunch time, and yet nobody else has the rights to the coverage. So the nation was Tigerless. Heavens, work might have to be done, instead of sports watching! Panic stations! (here)
What to do? Well as usual News Corp is an inspiration.
Go The Punch. Steal that book, steal those pictures, put it all up on the intertubes for free. That'll learn them. If you've got the rights use them or the pirates will just purloin them.
Heck, let's hope Google links, so you can get thousands of hits. Information just wants to be free, we want to know everything about the sweet thwack of metal on dimpled compounds. We want it free and we want it now, in real time, and then we want to be able to go back and savour each sweet moment, for free of course.
I know you're shattered you missed it all. Why not read Five tips to avoid downfall by social media, illustrated by a YouTube clip of the offending social media? A story broken by the troops at Fairfax which claimed a couple of scalps. And now gets recycled on The Punch. Yep, it's environmentally friendly, and fills in the day, even if there's nothing much new under the sun.
Come on down preacher, and remind me that all is vanity:
Vanity of vanities, says the Preacher,
vanity of vanities! All is vanity.
What does man gain by all the toil
at which he toils under the sun?
A generation goes, and a generation comes,
but the earth remains forever.
The sun rises, and the sun goes down
and hastens to the place where it rises.
The wind blows to the south
and goes around to the north;
around and around goes the wind,
and on its circuits the wind returns.
All streams run to the sea,
but the sea is not full;
to the place where the streams flow,
there they flow again.
All things are full of weariness;
a man cannot utter it;
the eye is not satisfied with seeing,
nor the ear filled with hearing.
What has been is what will be,
and what has been done is what will be done,
and there is nothing new under the sun.
Is there a thing of which it is said,
“See, this is new”?
It has been already
in the ages before us.
There is no remembrance of former things,
nor will there be any remembrance
of later things as yet to be
among those who came after.
Amen to that. And remember to Think. Hard. before you support an out of control evil empire by splashing cash when you can get it for free, or recycled.
UPDATE: I usually don't bother running Jon Stewart, the funniest man on television, because you know where to find him. But with the Think. Again theme running in my mind, this little clip of the News Corp Fox deviant right arm's standards is worth throwing into the mix as a sorbet. Think. Hard.
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