'Embarrassing' police ad pulled offline after just one hour
A Queensland Police ad campaign to stop people calling Triple-0 unnecessarily has been pulled offline just one hour after it went live.
QPS launched its ad campaign on Thursday hoping to stop people calling Triple-0 unless it’s in the case of an emergency by offering alternatives, such as online reporting for less urgent issues.
The advertisement shows a man named “Dan” who is the “world’s worst decision maker”.
Throughout the ad, Dan makes “bad choices” such as wearing a flimsy toupee and eating expired sushi. It also references Dan’s “three failed marriages”.
But it also shows Dan making the "right decision" by contacting Policelink online “instead of tying up Triple-0”, to complain about noisy neighbours.
The video was posted to social media on Thursday at 9am but was pulled at 10am, The Australian reported.
There was also meant to be a campaign launch on Thursday, which was also scrapped.
#WATCH: The new police ad campaign that was ready for launch, until it was pulled at the last minute when senior officers stepped in.@TimArvier9 explains why. #9News pic.twitter.com/LK1b4gOsAz
— 9News Queensland (@9NewsQueensland) May 20, 2021
Shadow Police Minister Dale Last told NCA NewsWire the ad is “an absolute embarrassment”.
“What a waste of taxpayers’ money,” he said.
Mr Last compared the police ad to the Federal Government’s widely-panned consent campaign which featured a teenage girl smearing a milkshake on a boy’s face.
There were also concerns about Dan’s failed marriages being a link to domestic violence and the ad not taking such an issue seriously.
Advertisement pulled, re-edited
In a statement, Queensland Police said the ad was pulled and will be re-edited.
“The decision to re-edit the video was taken as the QPS did not want a reference to failed marriages being misconstrued to suggest a link to domestic and family violence,” police said.
“There was no reference to domestic and family violence or a suggestion within the video that any of the failed marriages occurred due to domestic and family violence.”
The ad cost $40,000 to make and will now cost an additional $5000 to re-edit.
Police said it was a “light-hearted approach” to how people should use Triple-0 appropriately.
QPS receives more than 734,500 calls to Triple-0 annually but said of “concern” was that more than 674,000 of those calls could have been made through other reporting avenues.
The campaign will be re-launched at a later date.
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