ANZ withdraws ads from The Footy Show
ANZ have reportedly pulled advertising from The Footy Show following a controversy surrounding co-host Sam Newman’s treatment of women. An interesting move on the part of ANZ. I doubt that any negative brand reactions to ANZ would have occurred had the ANZ not withdrawn their advertising, after all, the people watching the show are probably the ones that like Sam Newman anyway. So I don’t think this move is about preventing negative brand associations. Rather I think ANZ is hoping that the publicity surrounding the withdrawal of advertising will garner positive brand reactions for the ANZ and create some goodwill towards the ANZ bank for taking somewhat of a stand on the issue.
But come on ANZ, if you’re going to make a stand on an issue, at least do it properly. This is not the way to do it:
“We are not currently running adverts on The Footy Show. It was a commercial decision, as The Footy Show in its current format does not allow us to connect well with the customer base,” an ANZ spokeswoman told The Age.
Weak. Of course, it could just be that the ANZ do not want to support The Footy Show for Corporate Social Responsibility reasons, rather than simply for marketing reasons, but they should at least do it properly and be prepared to make their opinions known.
“Christian groups complain when they see programs they think are too progressive. This is the first time I can remember that an advertiser has objected because a show is too regressive.”
Good move ANZ, but you can do better!
