An opportunity has opened up for ad agencies interesting in driving the Labor party’s election campaign now that Naked Communications has been sacked following a Sydney Morning Herald article revealed the agency had offered “youth-focused website” TheVine an interview with the Prime Minister in exchange for ad placement – a negotiation that, ethically speaking, would compromise the integrity of both the party and publication.
The Fairfax report in today’s newspaper implicated that Pedestrian had received a similar proposal from Naked Communications offering access to Kevin Rudd in exchange for advertising across the website, however, as the Herald noted in the online version of the report, Pedestrian had not received the demand of free advertising when we were approached to do the interview, nor would we agree to running free ads in exchange for access to talent, especially when they’re the leader of a major political party (unless a certain person went into politics in which case we would totally make an exception).
Perhaps the greatest cause for head scratching in all this is the fact Naked was compelled to demand this kind of quid pro quo deal from youth media outlets AT ALL instead of simply facilitating an interview with the Prime Minister to give him an opportunity to shoot the shit about issues impacting young voters. Pedestrian would like to put our hand up to give Mr Rudd an opportunity to talk about the concerns of young Australian voters 100 percent free of charge and give him the opportunity to address any planned reforms and actions surrounding the defining issues of our generation – and, better yet, identify exactly what he thinks those issues might be.
Hey Mr Rudd, we know you are a socially engaged person with an interest in the youth vote so sit down with Pedestrian for 15 minutes of obligation-free face time and let’s talk. What do you say?
If you hand a line to the Prime Minister what would you want to know? Hit the comment section for suggestions or accost him directly via Twitter and tell him to call us, maybe?
Main Image by: Scott Barbour via Getty
