Nancy Reagan built a whole campaign on one word. No.
“Just Say No”, aimed at teenagers who thought they could handle the drug temptation. Forty years later, a Prime Minister with a small army of media advisers (reportedly 11) still needed someone willing to say it.
The failure wasn’t a joke about Kylie Minogue. It was the ‘minders’ who let the joke get recorded.
Anthony Albanese sat for Bush Deep
On July 3, Anthony Albanese sat for Bush Deep, comedian Nikki Osborne’s podcast, filmed inside The Lodge. Osborne’s alter ego, Bush Barbie, offered him three names in a round of Marry, Shag or Date: Minogue, Nicole Kidman, Rhonda Burchmore. He picked Kylie. Pressed to confirm all three verdicts applied, he said, “all of the above.”
See for yourself at 13:45: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uCMYgfmcA8M. Eleven seconds in 20 minutes of video.
Damage done: most who matter, lacking the giggly context, only heard/read about the hot-button misogyny. By Monday, his office had issued one line: “I apologise unequivocally for the comments.” Too late.
The host doesn’t miss
The author – Peter Wilkinson
Bush Barbie plays dumb. She isn’t. The wig and the drawl are the bait, not the joke. We Aussies do it well – remember the tissue scarred Norman Gunston? Guests relax around a persona built to look harmless, right up until they land the one-liner.
That’s craft. And alert operators that surround a sitting Prime Minister can’t afford eyes wide-shut. The risk is too high.
In crisis communications, you don’t just argue what Albo should have said. He was cleverly lured to that gaff. You ask who was in the room when someone said yes to the booking. Cameras, lighting, security clearance, access to the PM’s residence. None of that happens by accident. Someone approved a format built to extract an indiscreet answer, probably weeks before the tape rolled.
The audience he needs doesn’t read a broadsheet
There’s a real case buried under the embarrassment. Under-34 voters don’t read the AFR. Or The Australian. A Prime Minister who only exists in broadsheet opinion pages is invisible to a large share of the people he governs.
Where does he actually meet the 28-year-old renter deciding whether housing policy will ever touch his life?
Reaching that voter isn’t vanity. It’s reputation management for anyone whose career depends on being known by people who’ve never read legacy media.
There are many online publications aimed at U34s. Wanting the audience and choosing the vehicle, are two different decisions. Nobody in that pre-brief seems to have treated them that way.
A beginner’s guide to reaching the angry under-34s
The Aim: Reach U34s furious at politicians in general, at the cost of living, and at a housing market that’s not reachable. Do it before they stop listening, which, per the Digital News Report, many of them functionally already have, at least from traditional platforms.
The Objectives
- Ensure young people know the Prime Minister is working flat out to reduce the cost of living.
- Ensure young people believe home ownership is still a plan, not a punchline.
- Ensure young people see the Prime Minister as a person, not a suit.
- Ensure young people direct their anger at the era, not just the current government.
- Ensure young people feel heard.
That’s the brief.
Now get out there and be genuine: truthful and transparent. The trust account is already overdrawn, per Edelman Trust Barometer, with over 60% of Australians believing business and political leaders deliberately mislead the public.
We’ve been here before, everywhere
The point is that Prime Ministers need sharp advisors and focused preparation. Kevin Rudd on Rove Live in 2007, chasing the same “normal bloke” appeal, was asked “Who would you turn gay for?” He was ready, “My wife, Therese.” Tony Abbott chomped an onion, he wasn’t. Nor Scott Morrison, “I don’t hold a hose mate.”
Reach for informality and you get the audience. You also get a version of yourself nobody wanted.
The only test that matters
We ask clients four questions before any outreach. Does this improve Trust, suit the agenda, fit the message, gain vote/sales/share price? Four tests. Simple to write down.
What happens next
Albanese will likely do this again, in some format, unless the strategic illogic has been replaced with sharper thinking. He doesn’t have time to do all the thinking.
One detail favours the PM this time. Partway through, unprompted, he recited the second verse of the national anthem correctly. Most of Parliament House would trip on that bar.
Would his office run the same four tests before the next invitation, or wait for the next apology to write itself?
There needs to be someone to play Nancy Reagan. Before the tape rolls. Not after.
By Peter Wilkinson
Managing Director
Wilkinson Group