http://www.smh.com.au/rugby-league/...nrl-ad-is-simply-the-worst-20100227-pa4l.html
Why this NRL ad is simply the worst
JULIAN LEE
February 28, 2010
THERE is supposed to be an air of expectation and excitement at the beginning of the football season and the advertising is supposed to reflect that.
Sadly the NRL is too preoccupied with presenting a more acceptable face to the world than stirring up the emotion that should be central to any ad, especially one that heralds a new season.
The Sun-Herald was this week afforded the first glimpse of the National Rugby League's advertising campaign for 2010.
Yes, there are the grainy, rapid-cut clips of bone-crunching tackles and sliding tries, the sort of imagery that is there to remind hardcore fans why they watch league.
But interspersed with the action is a gallery of characters there to assure viewers that league is a family-friendly sport watched by people like you and me.
The fans that appear in the ads would do a diversity officer at a government organisation proud. They tick all the boxes of who the NRL thinks should be at its matches where everyone is welcome. There is the grandfather with his granddaughter, the indigenous Australian elder, the woman who works in a ''man's world'', a disabled Australian, a white-collar worker, a cute but gutsy kid, a Samoan and, somewhat bizarrely, a rodeo clown.
Putting the focus on the fans conveniently deflects the attention from the players, who can be a liability, as the NRL found to its cost last season when its ad was pulled after the arrest of stars Brett Stewart and Greg Inglis, both of whom were charged with assault.
NRL marketing director Paul Kind points out that NRL ads have not traditionally featured stars and last year's was a one-off. And he was under no pressure to not cast individual players in the ad.
But the reason the collection of fans is there is because, for the first time, the NRL has done some research and alighted on six ''brand values'' for which it wants to be known: community spirit, inclusiveness, opportunity, pride, decency and innovation. Most companies come up with this wish-list of corporate do-gooding when you ask them what they stand for.
But ask people in the street what they think the NRL is all about and it's doubtful anyone would express it in those terms. And there's the rub.
Now that the NRL has discovered what it is meant to be, it wants to tell everyone about it. The result is a campaign that lacks the passion and excitement of previous ones. As Paul McKay, chief executive of its ad agency MJW Hakuhodo, admitted about the past: ''We would have gone on gut, feel and intuition.''
And that's why they probably worked. The latest ad bears all the hallmarks of an NRL desperate to shoehorn its recently discovered brand values into a 30-second ad. That's all very noble but it doesn't make for good advertising.
As for the music - sorry ''score'' - it was ''composed'' in the ad agency. For an organisation that gave us Tina Turner for the best part of a decade and a reworking of the Hoodoo Gurus classic
What's My Scene, the music that accompanies this piece of pious propaganda is truly awful.
That's why the NRL's latest ad has the look and feel of a government ad promoting diversity in the workplace. Next time, fellas, use your heart rather than your head.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
I thought it was okay. Certainly not electrifying. But not terrible.
If you haven't seen it go to NRL.com and click on the link.
