NZ Herald and M&C Saatchi, Auckland behind parody news brand NZ Notworth News campaign
APN Online, publishers of leading news site nzherald.co.nz, has revealed that they are behind the satirical news brand NZ Notworth News which entered the market two weeks ago. The NZ Notworth News team features controversial front man Rock Stone, opinionated U.S sports reporter Chad Pennington, the passionate Erika Wanamaker, British newshound Valerie Hague, the very digital Dwayne Stevens and gorgeous weather presenter TreAnne Chalmers.
The campaign, which had people speculating it was part of the FOUR launch or a new comedy show for TV2 was devised by APN Online’s creative agency, M&C Saatchi, Auckland.
Says M&C Saatchi, Auckland’s Aussie expat creative director Dave King (left): “A lot of Kiwis read or hear a news story and accept that it is true, without putting a reality check over it. Yet look at many of the ‘news’ providers available to the New Zealand public and you quickly realise that they have credibility issues. Some are fluffy, others sensationalise, while there are a bundle that add a huge right wing spin. With this campaign we’re taking real news stories, then having the NZ Notworth News team apply their particular flaw to it. After people read or watch that story they are directed through to the real story on nzherald.co.nz, highlighting how easy it is to get flawed news unless you go to a trusted source.
Says NZ Herald general manager, Spencer Bailey: “nzherald.co.nz has a reputation for being the most trusted New Zealand news source online. By forming an entire news team that parodies the other kinds of news available to the New Zealand public, we were able to highlight the quality of our content and that not all news is created equal – and have some fun along the way.
“nzherald.co.nz offers award-winning journalism in a trusted environment, but we also believe that original and innovative ideas are the best way to bring about solutions that work – whether those ideas are for us, or our advertisers. We wanted this campaign to highlight that as well.”
From Monday 21 February, the NZ Notworth News team will be putting their spin on the latest news over the next month, with articles and videos being updated daily on nznotworthnews.co.nz
15 Comments
Shit. How could you get it so wrong? Looks and feels like something a client would do.
Everyone knew it was the Herald online. No surprises there.
Yawn.
Numb nuts 9.34, if you could read properly you wouldve seen that it launches next week. All we are seeing looks to be the tease, and it does say parody. Do you know what that means?
it’s a shame more clients aren’t brave enough to tease their campaigns. was pleasantly surprised to see the dps in the herald this week. got my attention.
But everyone knew what it was for anyway.
Not worth reading this post
So… the onion.
I like the fact that they’ve tried to carry the idea through to its fullest (tease, reveal, etc). However I think the time lapse has been way too long, most punters won’t remember that dps by the time the next phase is in market. The videos are super cringey but will appeal to some people’s humour I guess. The thing that puts me off the whole thing though is that the idea doesn’t really sell the product to me, ‘news you can feel’ how does that relate to nzherald.co.nz??
@ Jan – I think ‘News you can feel’ is part of the piss-take of the cringey news team.
Dwayne @43 seconds on his first vid.. does he say ‘bringing you the news faster than hot soup’? Copywriter?
This bad idea looked bad and was badly written.
Surely the Herald suffers from the same credibility problems they’re highlighting in the parody. Hence the brief? Just a guess.
@ Anon ‘This bad idea looked bad and was badly written.’ Lol, badly written, look at your comment.
I think that the idea is good but it falls down when the Herald comes into it. The parody is funny, but to then take that through to the Herald is too far away. Might be a good first step in shifting perceptions, but feels too try-hard to me.
@ 7:54 think of a less obvious joke, I hope you’re not a copywriter.
i still don’t get it?