Woolworths thought they had a great idea. It created an online gizmo which allowed punters to upload their chosen images of people killed or maimed or made mad by war.
The gizmo then created an image with the words ‘Lest we forget, Anzac 1915-2015’. At the bottom of the image the gizmo inserted the phrase ‘Fresh in our Memories’ and a Woolworths logo. Woolworths have an irritating singing commercial and other promotions using the word ‘fresh’.
Anyway, rather than use the gizmo, lots of punters got extremely angry with Woolworths which responded to the complaints by taking the thing down and apologising in a grovelling fashion. Others had great fun trashing the gizmo with appropriate images.
Of the gizmo, someone asked ‘what 12-year-old intern thought that up?’ Being not-for-profit does not exempt an organisation from exhibiting basic levels of common sense and decency. If this sort of crappy, crass Anzackery keeps up ‘commemoration fatigue’ will be an inadequate term to describe a widespread public mood.
More reports: Sydney Morning Herald; Channel 9; New Daily. The New Zealand Herald loved it. It seems that the site was pulled down after Minister complained. Woolies did not have permission. The problem is that many of the ventures that are given permission to use the word ‘Anzac’ are crass and exploitative also. Minister’s release. Guardian Australia. Jo Hawkins in The Age. ABC 7.30 including link to segment. Lots of comments. There are some later pieces in the companion post on Raise a Glass.
14 April 2015 and updated
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