Sack the copywriter

That was the best of the month? Man the fun they must have in that office.

hey chris, its so easy to put people down. why not appreciate the work that goes into these items.

Thanks for the backup, guys.
But Chris’ response is fairly typical of an online audience that has broadcast TV expectations, and you can’t produce online video without having a thick skin (I got a comment describing me as ‘boring as f*ck’ – and there’s probably some truth in that!)

The Hard Word is based on stuff sent in by CHOICE readers who are typically an older, more conservative demographic than your typical YouTuber, so the content is probably a bit out-of-context here.

PS – Comments don’t piss me off. Seeing a cat on a roomba getting over 4 million views pisses me off 🙂

@ Laurence,

I actually found it amusing. Good job.

Actually, with media converging and more and more we see print or online content producers branching out into broadcast, albiet on the web, I think it’s vital that such products are met with the same scrutiny.

There’s a lot of shitcanning that goes on regarding TV production (some of it warranted), but harsh as it might sound, why we should suddenly give lacklustre content giant passes simply because it’s “not their usual gig” is quite beyond me.

Max, I appreciate the work gone into it, but it’s a product in the public space, and thus is up for critique. Your comment is as helpful to me as “Why can’t we all just get along and be nice to eachother?”

I think calling your comment ‘critique’ may be stretching the definition, Chris, but I take your point. I’m not expecting a free pass. You want the content you choose to watch to be entertaining. We all do.
I’m happy to see people call me out on the stuff I produce – so keep doing it. But forgive me if I pay more attention to my target audience than to the Internet-at-large. This was produced for CHOICE readers using content that was sent in by them, and I really wouldn’t expect it to dovetail with the crowd here at mUmBRELLA.

Frankly – I’d love to be more like Zero Punctuation (Ben Croshaw is the model of how budget needn’t be a barrier to success), but given that I got complaints for using the phrase ‘we make shit up’ in a previous video, I’m not sure using phrases like “I’d have more fun swallowing a bale of razor wire and flossing myself to death” would go down all that well.

@Chris,

You make some good points, but let’s remember that often times, managers need much persuasion to get involved in ‘that new online stuff like Youtube’. If the result of their first effort is that it gets met with derision by people like yourself, then they will surely be turned off. While the space is new, cut a little bit of slack to those giving it a shot – it’s in everyone’s interest.

@Laurence,

Perhaps you can do a mumbrella version? 😉

It’s just a bit of fun. I like it.

Good start, but may I suggest entries accepted via email rather then just snail mail may help their cause?

I hear you, Simon. CHOICE has a pretty tight verification policy that extends to all of its stories, and I guess the grown-ups are worried that email evidence could easily be faked. Not only that, we need high-res versions to run on the back page of the magazine.
I’ll pitch the idea that we loosen the strings a bit on this and see how far I get.
Thanks for the feedback!

Many years ago Choice did a big expose that found Aussie Post wasn’t delivering a lot of o/night interstate mail on-time. Trouble is they forgot to declare they’d done their research during an airline strike! Choice has selective hearing, selective vision and is just as political, narrow-minded and nasty as any right wing pressure group.

@choice memory – wow, did we run over your cat or something? You seem to be very angry. Can’t say I’m familiar with the events you describe (I’ve only been here for a year and a half), but it doesn’t mesh with my experiences as an employee.
Perhaps I need to be here for at least two years before I get invited to the right-wing rallies they hold in the basement 😉

Sure we have an agenda – we’d be a pretty crap consumer advocacy group if we didn’t. But we make our processes, policies and testing as transparent as possible, and I can honestly say that I’ve never worked at any media company (here, or in the UK) where verification is taken so seriously.

@Simon – realising, of course, that you’ve most likely wandered off to more interesting topics, I thought I’d just mention that I’ve got the powers-that-be to agree to email entries. The Hard Word video will still use the print content as backup for content, but I’ll be inviting viewers to offer up their own submissions in whatever format they like.
Thanks for the suggestions!
:l

nice, well done, look forward to the next installment ….put together a Facebook group yet?

Yeah, I totally agree with you Other_Andrew, the video is exactly amusing and interesting.

I’m impressed more about the way the video is being created. It captures my attention with curiosity.

Very creative video!

Enjoyed it, glad that you have reviewed the email rules, you will certainly see an increase.