Espiner spears PM puffery

Written By: - Date published: 12:00 pm, February 16th, 2010 - 10 comments
Categories: brand key, Media - Tags:

Colin Espiner:

“Is that uranium I can smell on John Key’s breath? Or was there simply too much garlic in the lamb rack the prime minister cooked for his wife on Valantines Day?

Go on, laugh. But both seem to be legitimate topics of journalistic interest today. TVNZ’s Breakfast tackled Key on such weighty matters as his cooking, the value of his doodles, and his romp with Buffy the Serious Story Slayer at the Big Gay Out at the weekend.

When you add the widespread coverage of Key’s victory as New Zealand’s sexiest politician in a condom manufacturer’s survey and I really do start to despair.

Key won’t be displeased, though. It’s this mindless puffery – which he is very good at playing along with – that acts as a pressure valve and releases the head of steam that builds during the week on things of more moment. Such as GST or the speed wobbles within the coalition with the Maori Party.”

The endless stream of Key puff pieces really has got beyond a joke. All Key has to do is turn up somewhere and act goofy and all of a sudden there’ll be ‘gee, golly bet he’s a fun guy’ coverage in the papers. Today’s Dominion Post has nearly 500 words about Key painting on a mural.

Crafty companies are starting to realise they can use Key’s goofiness to leverage some free advertising.

Advertising company? Get the PM to paint your mural and you’ll get half a dozen mentions in the article about it. Condom company? Declare Key sexiest politician and listen to the ‘news’ media mindlessly parrot your name. And so on.

Meanwhile 276,000 Kiwis are jobless. And there isn’t space for them either in the newspaper or in Key’s diary.

10 comments on “Espiner spears PM puffery ”

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  1. the sprout 1
    16 February 2010 at 12:20 pm

    Good on Espiner for mentioning the disgrace that is our msm coverage of politics.
    Now let’s see if his colleagues can or will do anything about it.

  2. Tiger Mountain 2
    16 February 2010 at 12:26 pm

    There have been a number of pics published over the last year of Shonkey clutching a bottle of piss thats fer sure. A true creature of the BBQ pit or just spin for change voters?

  3. ieuan 3
    16 February 2010 at 12:31 pm

    Is the tide ever so slightly turning against the government?

    Are the media, that was so in love with the new PM, just getting a little sick and tired of all PR and no substance?

  4. Bill 4
    16 February 2010 at 12:47 pm

    But Espiners piece is itself puffery fcs!

    The majority of the piece is given over to explaining why JK’s share portfolio isn’t an issue. ‘Mining the Bigger Issues’, my arse.

    GST gets all of a passing mention mid sentence, squeezed in alongside the other ‘non-soap’ matters.

  5. tc 5
    16 February 2010 at 4:22 pm

    Spot on Bill……more puff from the puffmeisters in an attempt top portray ‘balance’.

    Quote a mate who was a senior journo in Oz for 15+years out here recently who does his own research so knows exactly where it’s at…….’FFS I thought you were joking, these clowns would be out on their ear putting this crap in front of day editors for airing….’ to which I replied told you so…we don’t have media only mediums of delivering the owners message.

  6. randal 6
    17 February 2010 at 11:56 am

    did anybody count the number of times he appeared in the sunday times last sunday?
    it seemed like every second page was another piccy of the vacant one leering at the camera.
    hahahahahaaha, I think he’s toast.