Thursday, July 9, 2009

Senator Stephen Conroy, Censordyne, Asher Moses, the good folk of GetUp and a warm glow for Oral-B


(Above: working for a cleaner intertubes).

What I want to know is, was it deliberate?

The juxtaposition on the page of the Herald of a nice ad for Oral-B with online activist group GetUp's parody ad campaign for Censordyne, cheek by jowel, top to bottom?

The story's here, and it's by Asher Moses, under the header Censordyne: net censoring gets a toothpasting.

It's a never no mind, I guess. I've always felt a warm glow towards Oral-B. I like their peppermint toothpaste so much I go into cut price pharmacies to buy it, thereby avoiding Woollies and their 'we will bury you' attitude to consumers and Choice. I've  had one of their electric toothbrushes for over a decade and never looked back (I notice back in 2004 Choice rated their cheap unit as top of ten electric brushes in terms of cleaning teeth and massaging gums).

But even if it's just a happenstance, I still feel a warm glow towards the Oral-B brand - they know how to do peppermint like the Dutch know how to do hot chocolate.

There's a parody website here.

There's a parody search engine here.

The target? The federal Australian government's fabulous folly, a harebrained scheme by the harebrained Conroy to do an Iran on the country by way of intertubes censorship.

GetUp plans to run the ad on every domestic Qantas flight into Canberra in August, around the first sitting week of Parliament. They also intend to run the ad on television, starting on Sunday during Meet the Press, but the number of plays will depend on donations from the public. Why not send them a few schekels to help send Senator Conroy up shitless?

Creator of the ad is Dan Ilic, GetUp CEO Simon Sheikh is pushing it out into the world, and the indefatigable Asher Moses chalks up another story about the sublime stupidity of Conroy. Props to them all.

If he isn't feeling the heat in his feet by now, Conroy surely must have taken a course in fire walking from a Filipino faith healer.

Here's a snap of the website:


Oh and here's the video:

2 comments:

Nick D said...

Now you have me wanting to try the peppermint stuff.

dorothy parker said...

In my youth, peppermints were the way to fresh breath - part of the Germanic heritage.

And it tastes better than Sensordyne - boy did they miss a marketing opportunity - but I'm as slack and culturally fixated as the next consumer and haven't tried Colgate for years, so who knows.

If Oral B did join in the fun - you'd hardly call Procter & Gamble a world class revolutionary outfit -where does that leave Conroy ... and viral marketing? Even if I hated Oral B, I'd love it.