Category Archives: Advertising

The Socialists have reached Queensland, and here’s how they plan to help you!

Posted in Advertising, Human Rights by

This week, I found out the Victorian Socialists, spearheaded by Jordan Van Den Lamb (aka Purple Pingers), have made it to the sunshine state.

Yayyyyy!

As they launch their campaign to build an official political party in Queensland, like the one they have down south, I have joined with gusto. 

I mean, founding members like me pay only $10 a year, which I can actually afford omg.

But I also genuinely think they are so cool, no sarcasm, just a desperate Millennial finding hope in fighting back against the establishment in this, Australia’s version of late stage capitalism. 😎

Some inspiring words from Rebecca, one of their organisers, are below in quotes.

The rest is my own commentary and praise of their efforts. 👏👏🤩

check out the Queensland Socialists on insta

Why Queensland Socialists?

They say – and I agree! – that:

“Queensland desperately needs a political force that stands up to the powerful, and stands with the people who are fighting back.”

The greater Brisbane region has been dubbed the homelessness capital of Australia, and it’s for the worst of reasons:

Soaring rents…

Climbing house prices where no first home buyer has a chance anymore…

Renter’s “rights” that give you just a hint of hope, before you get to the Queensland tribunal – which is run by rich white men who are actually, surprise surprise, landlords…

Oh, and luxury skyscraper apartment blocks popping up so often that they started calling us the City of Cranes, but you can’t afford to live there unless there’s 6 people sharing a 2-bedroom… 🏗️

And all of that nonsense, which is easily avoidable by changing policy, has tragically pushed many people and their families into housing stress.

Tent cities have popped up all across South East Queensland.

But that’s not enough for the fat cats in Queensland parliament. No, in 2025, the city councils of Moreton Bay and Brisbane have “coordinated with the police to forcibly” – and in my opinion illegally – evicted residents of the tent cities in Moreton Bay and in Brisbane’s Musgrave Park.

Rebecca of the Socialists says, “Since taking office in 2024, the Crisafulli LNP government has initiated a crackdown on government spending, whilst pledging $3.8 billion to construct an Olympic stadium over public green space at Victoria Park. They have put forward a government wages policy behind inflation for Queensland’s public servants, threatening to further drive back living conditions for nurses, teachers and paramedics.”

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Why Australian women choose the bear (a poem by TJ Withers)

Posted in Advertising, Creativity, Human Rights by 
This original poem by TJ Withers is a response to the national OurWatch ad campaign and the global social media trend. See the hyperlinks within the poem to get all the context.

Men killed fifty-four women and four kiddies in seven months – who’ll be next?

It’s impossible to bear

Tiktok asked if we walked alone in the woods, would we rather see a wild bear, or a man?

Them men chose the man

We women choose the bear, because

If a bear attacks, people believe us

They don’t say, “He’s a good bear, though. He would never.”

If a bear attacks, you can see the scars

We can prove it happened

Hospital reports, doctor’s notes, days off work

If a bear attacks, the worst it can do is kill us

It don’t desire

To overpower

The bear mauls but won’t assault

If the bear attacks, and we tell someone what happened, the bear don’t sue us

The bear ain’t offended

The bear don’t deny their actions

The bear don’t have money and lawyers and an ego

If the bear killed us, people wouldn’t say,

“She should’ve chosen a better bear.”

If the bear attacks, police would say we were brave – not belligerent

But they say,

“She got aggressive”

“She provokes that bear”

“Put her in jail”

“Take her kids away”

No, nobody makes us raise kids with the bear afterwards

When the bear leaves, he’s gone

If the bear attacks, and it chews us up, spits us out,

Disabled for life

We don’t need to sue just to prove

It was the bear

If the bear attacks, we know it’s because

It’s a bear

Not human

If a man attacks, they say, “Boys will be boys”,

But we know it’s because

He a man

And he don’t think we human like him

It’s impossible to bear

That’s why we choose the bear

So let’s be very clear,

We have the stats – control brings fear

Then violence, then death

But if she asks the police, they ask, “Where did he hit?”

Grabs her screenshots, takes photos, begs for witnesses

If she stands up in court, the judge says, “Needs more evidence.”

Don’t tell me these campaigns are going to work

Asking everyone to think “we” not “me”

They think it’s “not all men”, so good men should stop the bad ones

But if it’s not all men, where are the men?

At our July march, I see one

Old, white, brings a camera

Points it in the face of women without asking first

We cringe

He’s right up close

Up close is where it happens

We were worried about the stranger walking behind us, hoodie strings drawn

Clutched our car keys tight

But that’s not where it starts

No, it’s behind closed doors

They kill a woman every four days

They take what they want, then say she wanted it

They say they earn more, so she stayed home with the kids

They say she can’t see them, so she’s suddenly alone

They say they love her, so she tries not to talk about it

Feel bad

Know something’s wrong

But she’s in her own home

Relationships aren’t meant to be this hard, right?

When social media says more than the pollies

Because we’re the ones who care

It’s impossible to bear

That’s why we choose the bear

This is an original poem written by me, TJ Withers, as a reaction to the femicide epidemic of domestic and family violence (DFV) against women in Australia in 2024. All images are my own, taken at Brisbane’s July march in the series of national marches in the No More Violence Rally organised by the amazing humans and women and trans women and non-binary people at WWYW? Australia. This post does not implicate any men in the commission of DFV against the author or any other woman.

Bumble’s bumble: Worst Advertising Campaign of 2024 Award

Posted in Advertising, Human Rights by

The second I saw this ad campaign by Bumble, I immediately uninstalled the app (I never use it anyway) and submitted a 1-star rating everywhere I could, and so did thousands of others.

Here’s why.

Note: This article refers to “women and other genders” and to “non-men” in an attempt to represent the reality of as many people as possible. Anytime I’ve written “women”, “trans women”, “trans men”, or “non-binary people”, know that I’m trying to remind people of a gender fluid spectrum, rather than trying to call out specific genders.

How Bumble offended every non-man in just 2 days

Bumble launched their “celibacy is not the answer” ad campaign in early May 2024, and it’s worse than anyone expected.

Example 1 from Bumble's ad campaign in May 2024 says you know full well a vow of celibacy is not the answer.
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How to Make Money as a Content Creator (In Theory)

Posted in Advertising, Book Reviews, Creativity by

I found myself Googling this exact phrase this week — don’t ask — and could not find the actual answer anywhere.

As in, the numbers of followers you need to have on each platform before you can join a Creator Fund, get ad sponsors, or monetise your content.

I’m not at all interested in all those posts that say they’re about how to make money, but they’re actually just about how to make good content. Nope, I’m all about trying to make some extra cash, thanks.

So I’m collecting the answers here, for you and for me.

This is all information collated from various sources; this is not from personal experience (sadly). As you’ll see, it’s a challenge, each platform is very different, and none of them make it terribly easy.

Let me know if you’d like me to add information from any other social media platforms!

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Food-related advertising that does and doesn’t work | WW, OzHarvest

Posted in Advertising by

The worst rebrand I’ve ever seen happened years ago, in 2018, but I only saw it last year, and this post sat in my drafts for 6 months. Let’s talk about what happened when Weight Watchers decided they needed to make themselves cool again!

Why the Weight Watchers rebrand just doesn’t work

Weight Watchers reckons their new brand, WW, stands for ‘Wellness that Works’.

Umm, sure.

The new Weight Watchers packaging for one of their frozen meals, a mushroom & pumpkin risotto, features a big "WW"
The new Weight Watchers packaging for one of their frozen meals, a mushroom & pumpkin risotto, features a big “WW”.

Nobody is fooled — their product is still diet food.

And while the packaging looks fine, the concept is flawed.

Say it out loud with me.

WW.

“Double you, double you.”

WTF?

I laughed sooo hard looking at their new packaging, and realising what they’d done.

A diet food company that’s brand literally says it will double you?

What genius thought that was a good idea?

As if we didn’t have enough reasons to hate diet culture already…

The latest round of OzHarvest ads I saw in the Brisbane CBD in 2021 were amazing. They were eye-catching and thought-provoking.

2021 ad for OzHarvest shows a cauliflower and cloud of greenhouse gases, along with the slogan "wasting food is worse than flying".
The 2021 ads for OzHarvest featured the slogan “wasting food is worse than flying”.

The ad I’ve highlighted here is OzHarvest’s 2021 ad, which I used to walk past every day on my way home from work (when we were — oh so briefly — allowed back into the office). It shows a cauliflower and cloud of greenhouse gases, along with the slogan “wasting food is worse than flying”.

The eye-catching bright yellow colour, combined with the thought-provoking message, really caught my attention, and I saw other passers-by staring at the sign for a long time, as well.

It works for multiple reasons.

It’s the cognitive dissonance of thinking, “Me throwing out that rotten zucchini that I forgot was in the vegetable drawer of my fridge … that was worse than flying overseas? Really? But I pride myself on my eco-conscious behaviours!”

It’s memorable, mainly because it’s so hard to believe. I will never forget this ad that said wasting food causes more greenhouse gases than an airplane flight.

And although I didn’t immediately remember which brand had posted the ad (the #1 test for any advertising in my opinion – brand recall), I was able to look it up so easily on Google using the slogan, which was unforgettable.

Any more thoughts about why this advertising works? Let me know in the comments!

(C) TJ Withers-Ryan 2022. Credit me when sharing.

Weird and Wonderful Advertising: Closed for Maintenance

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Here’s a beauuuuutiful example of a brand doing “closed for maintenance” right, by defusing any anger people might be feeling about it: Urban Utilities water mains upgrades in the Brisbane CBD this week.

Urban Utilities ad in Brisbane CBD November 2020: These water pipes have been in business for almost 100 years. Please excuse us while we replace them.
Photo credit: TJ Withers-Ryan. Advertising: Urban Utilities, November 2020, Brisbane CBD.

That’s a great way to say, yes sorry we’re doing maintenance, but you can’t be too mad – these poor pipes have been serving you well for years and they deserve a break!

This is especially important because water mains outages are very inconvenient and a lot of people would be mad about it.

Urban Utilities logo on advertising seen in Brisbane CBD in November 2020.
Photo credit: TJ Withers-Ryan. Advertising: Urban Utilities, November 2020, Brisbane CBD.

I love this advertising. Makes me feel good about maintenance works for the first time in my life, so well done, Urban Utilities.

Well done.

(C) TJ Withers-Ryan 2020.

Weird and Wonderful Advertising: Church Edition

Posted in Advertising, Words of Faith by

This morning, I spotted not one but TWO churches who had the same indecipherable Bible verse on their billboard.

In a second, I’ll tell you what verse they chose and why it just. Doesn’t. Work.

But first, let’s look at why some churches have billboards outside their worship centre (why advertise), and what they’re hoping to achieve (the advertising goal).

Let me say at the outset – I’ve been to a lot of churches, and they’re not all great expressions of God’s love – but some are! I have attended a few great churches.

Churches where the people show God’s love in practical ways to the world and to each other during the week.

Where the people show genuine affection for each other when they hang out.

Where the people show love for God in how they worship on a Sunday.

And I love God. 100%. I wish more people knew how awesome his love is.

Why churches advertise

Churches typically have three interrelated goals when advertising:

  1. Invite the reader to seek God. This is the core aim of reaching out to the world (in church speak, evangelism).
  2. Invite the reader to join their community of faith (fellowship).
  3. Invite the reader to learn more about their set of beliefs (doctrine).

And these are the goals that all outward-facing, publicly-visible materials should be judged against, if that church is indeed trying to reach out to the communities around it.

That’s why things like your church’s website, Facebook page, Google maps entry, billboard, and social events calendars, are all vitally important, and must be working towards those three “advertising” goals.

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Weird and Wonderful Advertising: Humour Done Right

Posted in Advertising by

Last time, I showed you how advertising that uses ill-advised humour destroys the trust of your customer.

So I promised that this time I’d show you how you can use humour for good effect, to make you memorable, while still keeping the trust your customer places in your brand or your industry.

Oscar Wylee advertising

Today’s case study is the optometrist Oscar Wylee, whose advertising I walked past in the Myer Centre (Brisbane) in July 2020.

“Get tested: book a bulk billed eye exam today.” Oscar Wylee in person advertisement
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