Anzac misfire judged harshly

Woolworths’ disastrous Fresh in our Memories campaign was arrogant, misjudged and showed the supermarket giant putting its own brand above that of the Anzacs, leading figures in the WA advertising industry have claimed.

The supermarket this week pulled an experiential campaign that placed the company’s logo and campaign slogan across photographs of First World War soldiers.

The campaign caused outrage from veterans’ groups and on social media, resulting in the advertising agency that created it, Melbourne-based Carrspace, deleting its Twitter account and references to the campaign on its website.

It also sparked a warning from Veterans’ Affairs Minister Michael Ronaldson that Anzac was a protected word and its misuse could see company’s hit with a $50,000 fine. Woolworth’s has apologised for the offence caused.

Rene Migliore, managing partner at SHEDcsc, said Woolworths had “well-and-truly overstepped the mark” and the supermarket should have known better.

“The use of the word ‘fresh' in their campaign was either an unintentional oversight by someone in the ‘fresh-food-chain’ — which is just lazy — or even worse they felt it was acceptable word-play,” he said.

“Either way it shows incredible arrogance by a brand who put their own importance above that of our treasured Anzacs.”

Business director at J. Walter Thompson Perth, Doni Savvides, said the “clunky” use of the word ‘fresh’ revealed Woolworths’ motivation for attaching themselves to the cause — and it came across as selfish.

“They could have learned from the mistakes of UK supermarket giant Sainsbury’s, and their 2014 Christmas television spot — a beautiful and expensive masterpiece that depicts the true story of a Christmas Eve ceasefire during World War I, where both sides stopped to celebrate Christmas together,” Mr Savvides said.

“(It was) a real tear jerker of a TV commercial that was ultimately labelled by many as disrespectful.”

Andrew Seinor, is a business performance agent at The H Factor, said the supermarket had forgotten Anzac Day was a memorial, not a celebration

“It is associated with many emotions that marketers strive to attach to their brands, including loyalty, mate-ship, pride, and patriotism,” he said.

“The point of the day of memorial though is to also remind us of the sacrifice, loss, destruction, and brutality faced by those who have represented our country in battle.

“Marketers will naturally want to disassociate their brand from those emotive aspects, and focus only on the positive ones.

“For example, Woolworths were obviously hoping people would post pictures of soldiers proudly posing, perhaps with their families or mates, and then associate their brand message and logo with them.

“The use of the word 'Anzac' is regulated because if this behaviour is allowed or encouraged then the higher purpose behind the day of memorial will be lost.”

Carrspace was added to the Woolworth’s advertising panel as its experiential agency just last month.
Late last year M&M published Block Branding creative director Mark Braddock’s advice for brands engaging with the Anzac brand. Read it at bit.ly/mmanzac.

Mr Braddock said it was inevitable that one brand or another was going to overstep the mark in the lead up to the centenary of Gallipoli.

“Woolies was just the first one to misstep, or at least be noticed to misstep,” he said.

“I imagine that a lot of agencies would have got calls on the morning after this broke killing a lot of work that was about to run.

“I don’t think anyone would have an issue with Woolies in association with the RSL or Legacy producing a memorial to the Anzacs, but there were a few mistakes they made that are so simple as they shouldn’t need pointing out.

“Placing the logo on these images — also in colour to thus draw more attention to it — co-opts the image of the digger into that of an unwilling endorser of the brand.

“Using the portraits of individual diggers also makes the infringement a personal slight against an individual whose story and fate is unknown — someone who had no say in how his image is used.

“And then to encourage others to equate themselves with the Anzacs by placing themselves in the position of the soldiers was very odd and makes no sense.”