A satirical newspaper ad encouraging readers to ‘discover Maddington’ hasn’t gone down well with locals who live in the southern Perth suburb.
The joke ad, featured in independent newspaper Perth Voice’s trades section, names Maddington as Lonely Planet’s 844,987th “must visit suburb” in 2015.
It then goes on to spruik some of the areas highlights including “1970s bore-water stained architecture”, “exotic brothels” and “dry brown-grass parks” before providing readers with directions on how to get there.
“Just keep driving down the Albany Highway. Keep going, even when you think you’ve gone too far, and you’ll nearly be there,” the ad said.
People responded to the post defending their suburb with one woman saying “the people are generous and welcoming, we have great parks, an abundance of community activities and great schools.”
Perth Voice chief of staff Steve Grant said the ad was a joke and that the newspaper published a fake one each week for the amusement of readers.
He said the Maddington ad was a piss-take of the news that Fremantle had recently been listed in Lonely Planet’s top ten city destinations.
“We thought, where would be another interesting destination that can be for Lonely Planet and we came up with Maddington,” Mr Grant said.
“It’s highly underrated and should be up there.”
It’s not the first time the newspaper has ruffled a few feathers.
“There’s a lot of political stuff (in the ads) depending on what we might having going on,” Mr Grant said.
“Our exorcism for children ad proved popular.
“When a footballer (James Hird) fell off his bike, it was on the news and we took the mickey out of that.”
A satirical ad published by Perth Voice after Essendon coach James Hird fell off his bike.
Mr Grant said the quirk in the paper was good for advertisers as it encouraged readers to search for the fake ad every week.
Marketing Focus consumer behaviour analyst Barry Urquhart said if done well, this kind of unique style of reader engagement could become an institution.
“(Perth Voice) is trying to address the circumstances of the “now” consumer who looks, scans and casts away,” he said.
“People will seek it out and study it a bit closer and that will retain readership over a longer distance… it becomes the water cooler conversation of the day.” (Heather McNeill)
Link: http://www.watoday.com.au/wa-news/discover-maddington-lonely-planets-844987th-must-visit-suburb-of-2015-20151116-gl0ew9.html
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