Category: Bizarre

I simply ask this: could I walk into a branch of the National Australia Bank and openly promote my business to those in attendance? I’d encourage EVERY Australian blogger who has an account to the National to close it.

From today’s Crikey (not quite reprinted in full, but as it’s subscription only, reprinted enough so you get the core idea):

Last week, the National Australia Bank ?¢‚Ǩ?ìspammed?¢‚Ǩ¬ù the comments sections of private blogs in an attempt to secure free promotion for the launch of its new SMS banking service. NAB is standing behind this decision.

Last Thursday, an anonymous message was posted to the comments section of an article about the recent controversies surrounding Sam Newman on the AFL Player Spectator blog…the message was out of context and irrelevant, promoting an event at Melbourne?¢‚Ǩ‚Ñ¢s Federation Square and a ticket give-away:

“Hi guys, NAB is giving away free tickets to the Collingwood v Carlton game on Saturday afternoon @ the MCG. Hop on down to Fed Square tomorrow?¢‚Ǩ¬¶ this is all to launch the new NAB SMS Banking! Thank you”….

NAB media relations spokesperson Felicity Glennie-Holmes confirmed that the message was indeed from the bank. The idea to spam the comments sections of private blogs was a recommendation of PR agency Cox+Inall, part of the BWM group, and had been undertaken by Cox+Inall with the bank?¢‚Ǩ‚Ñ¢s full knowledge and approval.

Cox+Inall had searched for blogs that included AFL coverage and were ?¢‚Ǩ?ìwell-enough read to attract readers who might be interested in our offer,?¢‚Ǩ¬ù said Ms Glennie-Holmes. No-one at NAB or at Cox+Inall had considered approaching blog owners first for permission before posting their promotional messages, she said.

?¢‚Ǩ?ìBlogs are a public forum?¢‚Ǩ¬ù, said Ms Glennie-Holmes. NAB and Cox+Inall felt this meant commercial interests could feel free to contribute unsolicited and irrelevant commercial material as comments, placing the onus on blog moderators to reject or delete unwanted comments.

?¢‚Ǩ?ìWe identified five or six blogs where we felt we?¢‚Ǩ‚Ñ¢d give it a try,?¢‚Ǩ¬ù explained Ms Glennie-Holmes. ?¢‚Ǩ?ìWe chose blogs where we thought the moderators would review and decide whether or not to carry our message?¢‚Ǩ¬¶it was up to the blogger to decide whether they would leave the comment there or delete it.?¢‚Ǩ¬ù

The fact that the message posted to the blogs was ?¢‚Ǩ?ìvery openly promotional?¢‚Ǩ¬ù and not deceptive also justified the bank?¢‚Ǩ‚Ñ¢s conduct, Ms Glennie-Holmes said.

Despite this openly promotional objective and targeting blogs based on their readership and web traffic, NAB ?¢‚Ǩ‚Äú which reported a net profit of $4.6 billion last year ?¢‚Ǩ‚Äú at no time considered remunerating bloggers, who typically blog in their own spare time and without sponsorship.

On its website, under the heading ?¢‚Ǩ?ìKey points to help protect yourself online?¢‚Ǩ¬ù, NAB advises its customers to ?¢‚Ǩ?ìDelete spam emails and do not open email attachments from strangers. Consider using a SPAM filter.?¢‚Ǩ¬ù

However, Ms Glennie-Holmes said she didn?¢‚Ǩ‚Ñ¢t see anything contradictory in the bank stressing online safety and security and warning customers about spam when it was itself adopting a communications strategy based on spamming private blogs.

Absolute scum bags and a disgrace to the Australian corporate community. Boycott the NAB now.

Mao Ze Rudd is going to make R rated games legal, a good thing, and yet they want to censor the interwebs from sex and anything else that might be offensive on the given day they pass the legislation, and the giveaways they’ll give to Fielding to get it through the Senate.

Don’t get me wrong, I support the gaming move, but you’d think the Government was being run by American Republicans: violence is OK, sex is bad. All that stuff about Ruddy being a bible basher was true, wasn’t it… I can sense the mythical hand of God in Government policy, after all there could be no other rational explanation for their dyslexic censorship regime. Conroy’s probably tacking tips from Huckabee 🙂

The Melbourne God-botherer has a post on his blog about swearing. Here’s some choice quotes

Blogging using cuss words has become a trend for some new bloggers hitting the scene, but I?¢‚Ǩ‚Ñ¢m wondering is it really to any avail? I want to take this time on Problogger to analyze the pros and cons of putting the S-word, B-word, or any other X-word that might be whispered into your eat by that devil on your shoulder…..Your blog will have a friendlier, less hostile look. Saying a swear word creates a more hostile atmosphere to the sentence you have just said. This applies to blogging, as well. Keeping your blog friendly encourages people to enter and comment….I don?¢‚Ǩ‚Ñ¢t particularly enjoy swearing on my blog, Blogosis. I might throw in an ?¢‚ǨÀúa$$?¢‚Ǩ‚Ñ¢ or a ?¢‚ǨÀúI3!tch?¢‚Ǩ‚Ñ¢ every once and a while, but I don?¢‚Ǩ‚Ñ¢t overdo it.

What, ass and bitch are swear words? What the Fuck?

Ass (or more correctly arse) is something I sit on, bitch is a female dog 🙂

The fact an entire post can written about swearing without actually swearing is a fucking miracle in itself I guess.

Surely there’s more important things to worry about in the world than this…well, probably for some involved there isn’t.

Clever.

This video needs no explanation. Did someone say brain damage? 🙂

This is pretty close to being one of the weirdest things I’ve ever seen 🙂

Read this.

WTF? Instead of the issue being focused on yet another couple of AFL players being on the Persian rugs, I say yet another couple because if you look at the Weagles alone more than one are on them, the problem is Channel 7 publishing the truth. Yes folks: AFL players may boycott the Brownlow because Channel 7 said that they had evidence that AFL players were on the Persian rugs. I know now why my son will play the game from Heaven (Rugby Union) and not AFL. Want your next AFL team, head down to your nearest dark corner. As long as the AFL continues to condone drug use with absurd media bans and other behavior, Australians should unite and boycott the AFL, or perhaps just take drugs, after all that is what they are condoning.

Golden: from the same party that delivered a Prime Minister that held the world record for beer drinking comes Kevin Rudd, potentially (likely) the next Prime Minister of Australia who whilst representing Australia at the UN in 2003 allegedly got so maggoted he visited a strip club and “was warned against touching the dancers” by the management of Scores “Gentleman’s Club”. 

Even more hysterical is Rudd’s denial:

“After dinner, Mr Allan suggested to Mr Snowdon and I that we all go on for a drink. Mr Snowdon and I agreed,” he said.

“By that stage, I had had too much to drink.

“With the benefit of hindsight, I should not have gone on for a further drink.

“Not withstanding the fact that I had had too much to drink, I have no recollection (nor does Mr Snowdon) of any incident occurring at the nightclub – or of being asked to leave.

“It is our recollection that we left within about an hour.”

Short story: he was too pissed to remember. In some ways it actually makes me more likely to vote for him, but I get the feeling some Australian’s wont see it this way. I wonder if this was the big secret story Crikey was alluding to a couple of months back.

Spot reference: Rudds New York trip cost taxpayers $18k. I wonder if he claimed for the money he placed in the strippers g-strings? 🙂

Makes sense, at least at the same level that religion as a whole does.

Spot question courtesy of Richard Dawkins: if there is a supernatural creator, who created the creator? 🙂