Bundaberg Bear getting the chop? Is that a media stunt I smell?

“But they must be non-corporate because they use smiley faces” is gold, Tim! 😉

Amnesia by name, amnesia by nature?

Love the intrigue. ‘sif get rid of the bear.

Soo, Karalee – do you confirm or deny?

Says Save the Bundaberg Rum Bear on Facebook “Call me a nostalgia loving bear hugging save the logo kinda anti-establishment free willed Facebook activist. Oh and I don’t even like rum”.
What I call is shenanigans.

I like the bear but I’ve always been interested as to how they’ve got standards approval which allows an alcohol brand to have a big, fluffy bear as their spokesperson.

Interesting. I thought I smelt a rat when the new design was so blatantly similar to the Jack Daniels one. But then the quote from the marketing manager threw me off the scent i.e. surely the client wouldn’t lie, that’s the agency’s job 😉

Now you’ve made me wonder. Keep us posted Inspector Mumbo.

Tim, you are correct – Bundaberg is not a client of Amnesia’s and we would not want to be associated with a fake /misleading campaign.

~@eunmac PS: Save the bear.

that’s a shame – i was all excited about being part of a grass roots action on behalf of animal welfare to save the bear. Does that mean the person i got the invite from (who co-incidentally ALSO works at Amnesia) wasn’t actually inviting me because they believe in the cause and are my Facebook “friend”, but just as a cynical attempt to do their job ? That’s disappointing… 🙂 <– Non-corporate smiley )

This is pure gold and far and away the best post I have read in a long time. Thank you for this non-corporate, non-affiliated awesomeness.

So why are they listed as your client on your website then, iain?

@anonymous – We work on a project by project basis with Diageo and have produced various a few campaigns for Smirnoff, Johnnie Walker. That said we aren’t working with them at present so maybe I’ll get someone to remove the logo just to avoid confusion.

*hahahaha* Seriously folks, I can totally see what you’re all thinking – especially given my role – but I 100% guarantee you that we are NOTHING to do with this re-brand. We truly, madly, deeply love the bear. That’s it.

And just for the record, I would never dupe my mates into work stuff, so let’s move on and put focus back where it belongs: Vive L’Ours Polaire.

Jen 🙂 <– oh, I'm sorry, this is a hangover from my 13 years client-side… 😉

Who the hell cares dude!!!

Talk about media talking up a shit-storm about nothing.

Who the hell cares dude!!!

Talk about media talking up a shit-storm about nothing

Busted!!!!!!

ooops. Sorry..i feel I blew the lid if this.
Really dont think Jen Bewes is involved…I think this has come form a tier one ad agency….bird told me LEO B..could be wrong.
previously at the good people of Capture who did a great Job with the brand.
SOCIAL FAIL
Terrible!

now the wall is locked….
oh dear

d

wow..I think i blew the lid on this one. Definitely not Jenny Bewes and Amnesia. I think you will find its LEO B’s
SOCIAL MEDIA FAIL of the century. Shame on Diegeo for hurting such a great Aussie brand..Moral to the story….dont mess with Bundy Drinkers! Honesty is also a good starting point.
hahahaha
(Insert emoticon of dancing polar bear)

Bundaberg has being trying to contemporize the brand in recent years, including by way of an updated label (with modernized bear device) about four years ago.

Seems a strange reversal now to dial up the heritage, and do so by swapping out one piece of heritage (with lots of equity) for another (with nil).

Iain, two follow up questions:
– Currently is Amnesia or any affiliate *indirectly* working on a Bundaberg brief via another of Diageo’s agencies?
– Is it Amnesia’s policy to permit its staff to participate in setting up on-line protests to thwart the marketing programmes of its clients (albeit “occasional” clients)?

$10 says B&T got a dry old press release from Diageo about an innocuous rebrand and decided their own take on things would be so much more interesting. Pretty out of character for them to go off half-cocked with something unsubstantiated and inflammatory though right? Hmmm.
The Amnesiacs are all way too savvy for a rookie error like this. They were just quick off the mark reacting to a poorly reported story.

the bear was never the same after they changed it (was going to type “stuffed it!” but couldn’t handle the pun) back in 2005 ( maybe 2004), the original bear rocked, but it never surpassed the brilliant ads of 2003,2004

Onwards and upwards, stopped drinking the stuff years ago. But does bring back some good memories!

If Bundaberg Rum don’t want the bear anymore, we can give him a new home, and in the same city!

Bundaberg Brewed Drinks could sure use the bear to help confuse consumers more about the link that does not exist. We’d have to dye his coat a pale amber colour to tie in with the ginger beer theme however. Maybe get him into some more adventure sports. Extreme drop bear?

Call me…

I wouldn’t drink the stuff even if someone paid for a drink and put it in my hand.

Mmmmm Bundy!

me thinks thou dost protest too much?

Looking at the trade mark register, Bundaberg Distilling / Diageo and its mega-law firm Blake Dawson have been pretty assiduous in registering trade marks. In fact they applied for yet another Polar Bear logo for the Bundaberg “Bare” variant (interesting name that) about three weeks ago.

No sign of an application for the new label though . . .

I have but only one question. In the TVC the bear is wearing neither pants or a holster…………Where for the love of god does he pull the can from????? I shudder to think.

you’re just fueling this so called ‘media stunt’. Get over it

@Monkeyvellian

1. Straight up – I have no idea who works on the Bundy account, but it’s not us.
2. Here are our Razorfish social media guidelines: http://www.razorfish.com/img/c.....ly2009.pdf – staff are free to work within these guidelines and indeed if staff decide they want to press a ‘like button’ from their personal Facebook profile that’s up to them. Same way they might choose agree or disagree with the internet filter etc on their personal fb/blog/twitter accounts.

Thanks @pokingthebear – Glad someone realises we are not so stupid that we would 1. Launch a fake campaign for a client, and 2. slap our name all over it so obviously.

Tim, why are you obsessed with digging up dirt on all things with the slightest scent of Leo’s on them? You usually end up wrong, anyway.

Far too contrived to be real……
Anyway, real Rum drinkers drink Inner Circle Black 33 O.P, not that watered down Bundy stuff.

This is hilarious. Great story. Pretty funny denying they’re a client and having them on your client list! Haha.

I find it a tad hard to swallow that an advertising agency full of hip young things would have such a deep-rooted love for a brand that is so quintesentially aligned with Cashed Up Bogans… And start a facebook page within an hour of reading about the re-branding in the trade media… really?

@freocookster, I can tell you now, Leo Burnett is not full of ‘hip young things!

Over Prooved …. never

Ha, I think eastern states, I think hip young things… you suggesting they’re stale old Bundy drinkers?

For what it’s worth, I’m seriously considering picking up a can of Bundy OP & Cola on the way home… doh!

Great work Tim, classic.
It appears their marketing is about as good as their sales.
Another Australian alcohol icon being mismanaged by marketing types that have never been in a real Aussie pub. VB, Bundy, is Tooheys New next? That’s right, that stag was tossed into the air years ago.
take the bear out to the back paddock and put him out of his misery. What is next, Bundy Blue?
Give me a drink from Mexico with lime shoved in the top any day.

Nicely picked up Tim – alcohol seems to attract disingenuous social media moments like this. Ain’t the first, won’t be the last.

@scotty you are kidding… how is this good work by Tim?
He put 2+2 together and got 5.

Tim should apologise to Leo Burnett, Amnesia and Diageo. It is so painfully obvious that this is just some people having a laugh.

@mumbrella you need to look past your sinister conspiracy theories and look for the slightly more plausible solution: Some people in the industry actually have a sense of humour…

Leo B’s started it?

Bundy’s for bogans and the bear sucks. Thank you.

In the past Amnesia has been criticised.
Ian McDonald has always answered those criticisms openly
and with professionalism. I think Amnesia is owed an apology.
I know a few sites with deageo client claims. Need to go deeper than that.

If this is a stunt, it raises some interesting issues.

The obvious disconnect between a local iconic brand and global mega brand is
I think the more interesting conversation.

Deageo may want to rethink a few things. Respecting the brand might be one Agency might be another.

Long live OP!

I can tell you who really did this.

Me.

I did this.

I’m the one who set this whole thing up. It was all my idea.

Getting rid of the bear, the Facebook group – all my idea.

Sure, I don’t work for Diageo or at Leo Burnett or Amnesia (I actually don’t have a real job) – but I don’t think that should preclude me from working on the Diageo account. It never stopped me from working on the Mumbrella account did it? (BTW, the first TVC I did for Mumbrella can be previewed here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5pCdrnAETSU )

Where was I… oh yeah…?

It’s all part of my self-promotional strategy to launch my new advertising agency, the one I started on Monday after lunch.

The next phase in my strategy is to apologise for the stunt. I do this next Monday.

The phase after that is to say that I didn’t do it at all and that I made the whole thing up to get attention.

I’ll do this on Wed or Thursday, there will be a press conference. It will be emotional. People will gravitate to my pain. Channel Seven will offer me a pilot. Matthew Newton will be my co-host. We will lunch together at Otto and then go out and get drunk.

Or maybe I won’t do any of that.

I’m not sure yet… I really haven’t thought this through.

Maybe instead I’ll ‘crowd source’ the next step of the strategy. That always works.

Any ideas?

Do I apologise? Confess it was a stunt that backfired? Or maintain that it wasn’t me? What are my options here?

Let me know, you know where to find me.

Love.

X

Lavinia

You do try hard, lavnia.

pity your not funnier.

You are cynical, Thomas Dodson.

Pity have such poor grammar.

Hilarious…

http://amnesiablog.wordpress.c.....o-burnett/

You’re right Tim, attention seekers!

The line between out and out lying and telling a provocative story to re-energise a brand isn’t too thin at all, and you can do one without the other (and should).

If this is a stunt, then there are no issues at all.

The brand lied.

Great post. We need someone to keep an eye on shifty stuff like this, I don’t see anyone else doing it.