Sam Newman-gate: Advertiser Boycott Encouraged
The fallout from Sam Newman’s hilarious mannequin stunt on the Footy Show continues to ripple through the industry, with word that other major advertisers could join ANZ in pulling their funds from the Show’s ad breaks.
Women’s Forum Australia, a national lobby group, is – understandably – pressuring major advertisers to take a stand against the Footy Show’s dark ages sexual politics.
The director of Women’s Forum Australia, Melinda Tankard Reist, said a wider boycott would have broad support.“This is definitely worth us doing,” she said. “The program has caused a great deal of hurt to a lot of women and if The Footy Show can’t respond in a proper manner, then maybe they will respond when they start losing money.”
The group, led by a Canberra-based board of female academics, doctors and welfare experts, will consider the issue at a board meeting next week. Advertisers or sponsors on the show include Nissan, Mitre 10, Safeway, Mazda, Arnotts, Telstra and Toyota. Current advertisers McDonald’s, Foxtel and adidas ruled out a boycott.
Apparently a show staffer has quit over the kerfuffle as well, though he a) requested anonymity and b) issued a “no comment” as to his exact reasons for leaving the gig.
Basically whatever happens through all this, it would just be nice to have it end with Sam Newman eating shit his words and being made to make a formal apology – on the day The Footy Show is cancelled for being irrelevant and is replaced by Straughnie.
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Comments
get over it, gee focus on kevin rudd
It really bothers me whenever my views intersect with those of Women’s Forum Australia, because I’ve come to believe that WFA has whiffy politics and presents itself deceptively. They’re sometimes quite strong and useful in highlighting degrading media issues for women, but are a bit less forthright about being an anti-abortion organisation – which they call advocating for ‘real choice’. I went to the launch of their report “Faking It” about the sexualisation of women in the media, and came away feeling quite sick and misled, because a) reading through my showbag of WFA reading materials I found that one of their mission statements is to advocate for “women’s right to be mothers”, b)I never expected to have to sit through an ‘abstinence education’ presentation at an apparently feminist event, and c) I never expected to be in the same room as Steve Fielding at an apparently feminist event. Just saying, WFA creep me out.