I hope you are encouraged by this clip from the CBC Early Show about the campaign to remove a T-shirt marketed to young girls with the logo ‘”I’m too pretty to do homework, so my brother has to do it for me.”

It was great to see how quickly this took off, after one woman, Lauren Todd, decided to take action, at first posting on Facebook, then launching a petition through Change.org.

Less than a day later, with 1, 600 signatures collected, JC Penney pulled the shirt from its website and issued an apology.

Here’s my favourite quote from Lauren:

“Consumers are supposed to get together and tell corporations when they are unhappy with what they are doing.”

So simple, so true, and so much at the heart of what we at Collective Shout are about. Often our campaigns begin when just one person decides to take action, then engages and mobilises others for the cause.

We’ve seen wins like the JC Penney victory too, after some of our campaigns have gone viral. I think my favourite was when Harvey Norman pulled an offensive radio ad (combining Santa, lap dancing and children) after a Twitter storm of a mere four hours on a Sunday afternoon.

In the same week, Myer removed ‘Betsy the bottle opening doll’ (the bottle was opened via the doll’s backside) after a protest lasting a mere 24 hours.

New forms of social media have enabled us to reach large numbers of people quickly. I wonder some days how we ran campaigns without it!

If you haven’t already signed up to Collective Shout, please do so here . You can also sign up to our Facebook here

We will be working more closely with Change.org which has just opened operations in Australia. Stand by for more.

See also: ‘Pretty’s got nothing to do with it’

Harvey Norman did the right thing. Myer should follow.

Designed by Fifty Fifty Concepts and supplied by Independent Suppliers,  Betsy is described as the ‘Sexy bikini babe ultimate bottle opener’. She is ‘hilarious’.

Why is this bottle opener sexy, hilarious and the ultimate in bottle openers?

Because it works by inserting the bottle into Betsy’s backside and screwing off the lid. The suggestion is that you are screwing her with your bottle. Hilarious yes?

Usually you see this kind of crap product in el chepo novelty stores full of Chinese-made plastic.

But that’s where our hilarious beach babe, who can’t wait to be anally assaulted with a bottle, is different.

Betsy is sold through “Australia’s largest department store group and a leader in Australian retailing”.

My store Myer. Not anymore.

If you don’t think this is the sort of product Myer should be adding its good name to, let them know. You can find a feedback form here.

Or drop the Board of Directors a note. They’re listed here.

Myer: Follow Harvey Norman’s Lead

Harvey Norman has demonstrated that if you do the right thing and rectify stuff-ups, you can attract consumer commendation and positive media. Here’s some of it.

 

 

 

Tweets kills Harvey Norman ‘Santa lapdance’ ad

IT took a series of critical tweets for Harvey Norman to realise that a radio ad which asked customers if they wanted to “give Santa a lap dance” might not be the best idea.

Harvey Norman’s radio ad for its Christmas family portraits special first aired on Sydney’s Nova 969 station on Saturday with the question: “Do you want to give Santa a lap dance?”

The ads were pulled four hours after feminist author Melinda Tankard Reist wrote a series of tweets criticising the radio promotions.

She said the ad was offensive because it objectified the women it was directed at and implied they would happily perform sexual favours for Santa Claus.

“We’re seeing sexualised messaging at every level of popular culture – even an ad about family photos for children has to involve sexual connotations, it’s a combination that’s all wrong.”

…”What I hope is that corporations particularly those that ignore us now realise there is a benefit to responding to customer complaints because if we work with them we can minimise the damage,” she said.

Read more here.

Harvey Norman avoids PR disaster, pulls offensive radio ad after four hours

…The entire Harvey Norman exchange is documented on activist Melinda Reist’s blog.  Reist says she was sent a Facebook alert about the Harvey Norman advertisement, which reportedly promoted the ability to have in-store photos with Santa but used the line “Do you want to give Santa a lap dance?”

Immediately, Reist sent out some tweets about the incident calling for a boycott. Soon after, several other Twitter users joined in the chorus until the official Harvey Norman Twitter account stepped into the fray.

Soon after, Harvey Norman social media head Gary Wheelhouse sent Reist an email, stating that he would “absolutely make sure this goes to the right people”. Forty-five minutes later, the company confirmed the radio ad had been pulled – about four hours after Reist sent her first tweet.

“I was surprised,” she says. “I’ve never seen a corporation respond to quickly. It was the fastest response I’ve ever seen, particularly for a Sunday afternoon.”

“I think they recognised the need to address the issue quickly, especially as people were threatening to stop purchasing, and with Christmas being their busiest period, the timing wasn’t good for them.”

Reist says the incident is a good example of how businesses can use social media to quash scandals before they cost sales.

“Harvey Norman is engaging in social media, and not all companies are doing that yet. The medium makes everything so much more instant, and it’s a great tool for people like myself…

“We’d love to see other companies move just as quickly.”

Read full story here.

The message is clear: if you’re a company engaging in inappropriate, objectified and sexualised advertising, you will be targeted. You will find yourself on Collective Shout’s Cross ‘Em Off Your Christmas List campaign. See: Don’t give sexploitation companies your Xmas dollar.  Myer, you’ll find your name on this list today.

Record response from company following a few hours of twitter action

This is the story about the fastest response from a company I have ever seen.

It is also testament to the power of new forms of social media.

I was at my desk, (which sounds better than saying ‘I was in bed reading Facebook updates on my phone’), when I saw a FB message sent Saturday from my fellow advocate for girls, Dannielle Miller. It was about a Harvey Norman ad she’d heard on Sydney radio station Nova:

So I thought I’d send a few tweets about it while working yesterday afternoon.  While I had hoped the tweets would make their way to the company at some stage, I hadn’t realised Harvey Norman was also @HarveyNorman – on twitter.

Here’s a couple from the first batch I sent:

I called for a boycott. Harvey Norman was next on the list for Collective Shout’s ‘Cross ‘em off your Christmas list’ campaign (Don’t give sexploitation companies your Xmas dollar).

My twitter followers got fired up. One was about to buy a TV from Harvey Norman. Not anymore. @Cbngal tweeted this:

Then this lobbed into to my twitter feed:

 I realised Harvey was also hanging around the twitterverse on a Sunday afternoon. And reading my tweets, including a re-working of the ‘Go Harvey Norman’ theme (suggesting where they could go, which probably wasn’t very nice).

Then this:

Journalist Sandra Lee @Fittoprint tweeted ‘the smell of victory’. I hoped she was right but didn’t want to expect too much.

Gary Wheelhouse, head of social media for Harvey Norman, then emailed me:

So I tweeted on his prompt reply. And expected to hear back on Monday.

Forty-five minutes later I received this:

Lyndal Gabriel heads up Harvey Norman’s radio and TV advertising.

Ms Gabriel informed me that the ad had just started running on the weekend, only on NOVA, and was pulled at 8pm. She emailed this comment this morning:

As a Retailer we do not wish to offend anybody, and as such when Gary picked up the comments on Social Media, we immediately acted and pulled the ad.

So all in all a mere four hours of action for the ultimate result.

While of course you have to ask who it was at Harvey Norman that thought this ad appropriate to run at all, I think it is important to commend corporations who recognise they stuffed up and act promptly to make amends.

The only other time I have seen a comparatively quick response was when Best & Less acted speedily to withdraw a padded push-up bra – for tweenagers – after I blogged about it in February. (In contrast, some retailers - like Roger David - don’t bother responding at all).

I really hope this account gives encouragement to other activists and would-be activists, that we really can make a difference. Collective Shout: for a world free of sexploitation  has achieved some significant wins in its first year. Get on board, shout out against sexploitation in all its forms.