NUT hits out at boyband marketing methods
National Union of Teachers' head of education, John Bangs, has hit out at the Universal label over marketing methods that he calls "unacceptable."
Universal has been recruiting children to promote their bands, including McFly and Busted, in the playground and the classroom, according to today's Guardian. Pupils are encouraged to sign up to the kiddie equivalent of street teams, and are required to put posters up in their schools and hand out flyers in exchange for the usual free stuff and, if the investigation is to be believed, personal calls from the bands themselves.
The kids also partake in the usual teaming activities, such as posting on Internet messageboards under band names (hello, McFlyMadwhatever?) and making request e-mails to radio stations.
Mr Bangs' displeasure at the label's methods was countered by Universal themselves, who claim that they've been running the scheme for some two years, and that the children actually enjoy it.
DiScuss: Is this exploitation gone mad!?
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NUT hits out at boyband marketing methods
John Bangs, John Bangs, ooh baby...
NUT hits out at boyband marketing methods
hahahahahha, at least it will give every child a defining moment in their lives when they look back on just how sad they were.
Next news item: Suicide rates increase after Busted split.
Next news item: Suicide rates increase after Busted split.
Re: NUT hits out at boyband marketing methods
hahahaha... Take That-tastic!!!
NUT hits out at boyband marketing methods
Obviously it can't be exploitation if they exploited enjoy being exploited.
It sounds like rape not being rape if the victim has an orgasm?
It sounds like rape not being rape if the victim has an orgasm?
Re: NUT hits out at boyband marketing methods
then again, the rapist may have got the girl very drunk. she enjoys it, but looking back she might not have wanted to do it. it's still exploitation.
Mind you, the exploitation of kids is a sad fact of our times, even in the Western world, or maybe even more seriously here.
Mind you, the exploitation of kids is a sad fact of our times, even in the Western world, or maybe even more seriously here.
NUT hits out at boyband marketing methods
I blame the parents.
Re: NUT hits out at boyband marketing methods
busted's parents?
NUT hits out at boyband marketing methods
This is pretty dark. Anybody fancy some direct action against major labels? I live just down the road from Virgin. So easy. And they've got it coming surely.
Re: NUT hits out at boyband marketing methods
Can we send Jiffy bags full of poo to their A & R department? We can mark the envelopes 'REQUESTED DEMO'.
NUT hits out at boyband marketing methods
"if the investigation is to be believed, personal calls from the bands themselves."
a pretty fucking crappy 'investigation' cos this has been going on since BEFORE they had a single out. i thought it was common knowledge.
didn't the woman at universal win an award from somewhere for her marketing methods?
a pretty fucking crappy 'investigation' cos this has been going on since BEFORE they had a single out. i thought it was common knowledge.
didn't the woman at universal win an award from somewhere for her marketing methods?
NUT hits out at boyband marketing methods
Is this why we have all the Mcfly kids on here?
NUT hits out at boyband marketing methods
i just read the article in the guardian and apparently in the 2 yrs the schemes been running, universal hasnt received a single complaint from any of the kids or their parents - i guess they really do enjoy it... besides, what's so 'unacceptable' anyway? they're enthusing about a band they already love and get rewarded for it. i don't see what the big deal is.
Re: NUT hits out at boyband marketing methods
I have a hunch that he did, yeah.
I mean, this IS wrong on some levels - child exploitation for one - but for the companies and the kids involved, it's mutually beneficial.
I'm not sure that a) it'll stop or that b) the investigation has highlighted anything that most people didn't already know. Perhaps only the NUT was unaware that this kind of marketing went on.
Is it any different from McDonald's offering schools lunch vouchers? Nope, not really.
I mean, this IS wrong on some levels - child exploitation for one - but for the companies and the kids involved, it's mutually beneficial.
I'm not sure that a) it'll stop or that b) the investigation has highlighted anything that most people didn't already know. Perhaps only the NUT was unaware that this kind of marketing went on.
Is it any different from McDonald's offering schools lunch vouchers? Nope, not really.
NUT hits out at boyband marketing methods
i'm with you fierce_kitten...I'm sure as the sad 8 yr old i was, I'd have loved to have done something like this for New kids on the block *cough cough, thanks god everyday she discovered patti smith...*
here's the article anyone who's interested: http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk_news/story/0,,1377312,00.html
here's the article anyone who's interested: http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk_news/story/0,,1377312,00.html
Re: NUT hits out at boyband marketing methods
No, I'm here because I'm bored/I write for DiS.
I'm a McFLY kid.
Don't mess.
I'm a McFLY kid.
Don't mess.
Re: NUT hits out at boyband marketing methods
Dont hurt me Mcfly kid.
NUT hits out at boyband marketing methods
oh my christ that's shocking and lazy and entirely wrong
NUT hits out at boyband marketing methods
it's not really exploitation when the kids sign up for it, it's pretty much just an extension of a fan club, also, mcfly and busted are in my opinion alot better than most boybands, although I think that busted may well wish they had such a loyal fanbase in america...
NUT hits out at boyband marketing methods
honestly, i dont see the problem. its no different to any street teaming i've ever done regardless of how old anyone is.
no-one ever promised me a personal call though. tight fisted music types!
no-one ever promised me a personal call though. tight fisted music types!
NUT hits out at boyband marketing methods
Oh come on! yeah the kids like it - that's because their young impressionable minds have been turned to pap by mass marketing madness from the age of 2!
I took my nephews to see Busted on Sat - it was horrible - every inch of space in Wembley Arena had been sold to sell these kids something - all with the same vibe of peer pressure - most of the things were the sort that parents want to control and must face a constant struggle against - where is the opt in for parents? How can you bring up a child without them being bombarded for adverts to eat shit food, buy overpriced toys that fall apart etc etc
Its inevitable in our MacDonalds society that large companys will use more and more morally dubious methods but you don't have to like it.
I just thank fuck I dont have kids and chuckle to remember the kid that went orange 'cos he drank too much sunny delight!
I took my nephews to see Busted on Sat - it was horrible - every inch of space in Wembley Arena had been sold to sell these kids something - all with the same vibe of peer pressure - most of the things were the sort that parents want to control and must face a constant struggle against - where is the opt in for parents? How can you bring up a child without them being bombarded for adverts to eat shit food, buy overpriced toys that fall apart etc etc
Its inevitable in our MacDonalds society that large companys will use more and more morally dubious methods but you don't have to like it.
I just thank fuck I dont have kids and chuckle to remember the kid that went orange 'cos he drank too much sunny delight!
Re: NUT hits out at boyband marketing methods
am I the only one to see the irony in this?
NUT hits out at boyband marketing methods
The kid that turned orange was funny.
Also another man 25 years ago committed suicide after drinking sixteen pints of orange juice and dying from excess of Vitamin C or something (it's true!). A rather peculiar way of dying from drink.
In reply to bobslayer, my sister went too. Gimp.
I think it's just sad that these kids are so naive, it's like they're clones, being subsumed into economics and globalisation despite being 7 or 8. It makes you realise that Marx had a point. People grow out of it though, don't they?
Also another man 25 years ago committed suicide after drinking sixteen pints of orange juice and dying from excess of Vitamin C or something (it's true!). A rather peculiar way of dying from drink.
In reply to bobslayer, my sister went too. Gimp.
I think it's just sad that these kids are so naive, it's like they're clones, being subsumed into economics and globalisation despite being 7 or 8. It makes you realise that Marx had a point. People grow out of it though, don't they?
NUT hits out at boyband marketing methods
Have I missed something? I though street teams had been around for years. What's so different here?
NUT hits out at boyband marketing methods
i blame america. :D
Re: NUT hits out at boyband marketing methods
It has just occurred to me - it was so obvious I hadn't even noticed - McFly are made by McDonalds. Just like McRat, McCockroach...and McHammer.
Re: NUT hits out at boyband marketing methods
Jesus, where's the political awareness? We're supposed to be young(ish). It reminds me of that Million Dead song - "Charlie and the Propaganda Myth Machine":
"If every child chased dreams of societal reorganization
In place of sweet wrappers and escape
Then we would see Mr. Cadbury's enlightened industrialism
For what it really fucking is:
Social morphine
We'd have ourselves a pre-school army."
Find and read - they put it better than I could.
"If every child chased dreams of societal reorganization
In place of sweet wrappers and escape
Then we would see Mr. Cadbury's enlightened industrialism
For what it really fucking is:
Social morphine
We'd have ourselves a pre-school army."
Find and read - they put it better than I could.
NUT hits out at boyband marketing methods
surely dominc masters methods with the others brainwashing kids into thinking he's their mate by giving out his mobile number to any fucker is just as deplorable and in no way any different from universal's more mass market efforts aimed at schools. just a thought?
And potentially more dodgy since the others are a bunch of nearly 30 something men masquerading as an indie band with a load of barely 16 year old obsessed girlie fans following them around everywhere
And potentially more dodgy since the others are a bunch of nearly 30 something men masquerading as an indie band with a load of barely 16 year old obsessed girlie fans following them around everywhere
Re: NUT hits out at boyband marketing methods
>surely dominc masters methods with the others brainwashing kids into thinking he's their mate by giving out his mobile number to any fucker is just as deplorable and in no way any different from universal's more mass market efforts aimed at schools. just a thought?
Not sure that's entirely charitable. I'll say this though. It takes some talent, or at least some get up and go, to sort out and perform a gig at a venue. Whereas anyone with instruments can organise a (cough) guerrilla gig.
Not sure that's entirely charitable. I'll say this though. It takes some talent, or at least some get up and go, to sort out and perform a gig at a venue. Whereas anyone with instruments can organise a (cough) guerrilla gig.
Re: NUT hits out at boyband marketing methods
At least the children are getting something from it, at my school there are posters in the canteen of acts like Amy Studt and Darius which were put up by the school itself (i assume in exchange for money, i can't really see the headmaster wanting 50 Busted baseball caps). Maybe the union of teachers is complaining because they'd rather the advertisements went through them and they got the proceeds.
NUT hits out at boyband marketing methods
It'll be interesting to see if the other teachers unions join in.
It's probably just a few teachers got fed up with all the advertising and disruption caused by this marketing strategy and mentioned it at a Union meeting.
Street Teaming is a great way to get into gigs and festivals with free backstage passes. Trouble is it's getting harder to find the bands who are genuinely causing people to get excited or just those giving away free t-shirts to those that get the most posts on messageboards.
It's probably just a few teachers got fed up with all the advertising and disruption caused by this marketing strategy and mentioned it at a Union meeting.
Street Teaming is a great way to get into gigs and festivals with free backstage passes. Trouble is it's getting harder to find the bands who are genuinely causing people to get excited or just those giving away free t-shirts to those that get the most posts on messageboards.
Re: NUT hits out at boyband marketing methods
No, I think it was intended that way...
NUT hits out at boyband marketing methods
Street Teaming itself is morally dubious - sure, the fans get something, but the record labels win because they get free promotion and the stuff they send out costs about 10000000000th the cost of doing real fucking promotion.
Small bands / labels, sure, but bands signed to majors? Fuck offfffff.
Small bands / labels, sure, but bands signed to majors? Fuck offfffff.
NUT hits out at boyband marketing methods
Absolutely nothing is real. It's dizzying.
Once all of our children are trained to be chattering little PR idiots, what will we do then? Pluck the best to make their money out of popular music and other such marketable, pointless dross, stick the rest in massive, city sized callcentres to scrape a living together out of data.
I'm starting to see the value of retro sci-fi as contemporary future vision - see how the people of the 50s looked at the future, their fears! (ie, things like Daleks - don't laugh - machines taking over. Brains in glass jars directing operations.) Now, look at what I fear - and, I suppose, what I will work to prevent. Or will I? Or will I end up in that Data City, pushing numbers and praying that I'm not reborn in Africa once this bullshit existence finally gets snuffed out?
I wonder if I'll live to see the dawn of the Chinese Empire? And will they do it any differently?
Still, back to topic; surely there should be an age of consent for corporate sodomy. Do they bypass employment law by giving the little future 'Team Leaders' CDs instead of cash money? Even more profitable for them, seeing as a £15 cd costs them about a quid to make.
The music industry is killing music. The time is now to strike back. Shame I haven't got the guts.
Or maybe I'm wrong. I don't know anymore. Why did reading that article depress me so badly? Don't even feel angry anymore. I'll just go home and listen to some other massmarketed creep, like Lou Reed, Bob Dylan or David Bowie - switch my head off for a while.
I've changed my mind. I love marketing. No, it's not love, it's admiration. The sort of sickly respect that the oppressed have for their tyrant. PR people know exactly how the world works and have adapted to it perfectly. They are brilliant. Maybe they don't like it anymore than I do, but they have brains enough to realise that money is EVERYTHING.
Why are there advertisements on this website?
Once all of our children are trained to be chattering little PR idiots, what will we do then? Pluck the best to make their money out of popular music and other such marketable, pointless dross, stick the rest in massive, city sized callcentres to scrape a living together out of data.
I'm starting to see the value of retro sci-fi as contemporary future vision - see how the people of the 50s looked at the future, their fears! (ie, things like Daleks - don't laugh - machines taking over. Brains in glass jars directing operations.) Now, look at what I fear - and, I suppose, what I will work to prevent. Or will I? Or will I end up in that Data City, pushing numbers and praying that I'm not reborn in Africa once this bullshit existence finally gets snuffed out?
I wonder if I'll live to see the dawn of the Chinese Empire? And will they do it any differently?
Still, back to topic; surely there should be an age of consent for corporate sodomy. Do they bypass employment law by giving the little future 'Team Leaders' CDs instead of cash money? Even more profitable for them, seeing as a £15 cd costs them about a quid to make.
The music industry is killing music. The time is now to strike back. Shame I haven't got the guts.
Or maybe I'm wrong. I don't know anymore. Why did reading that article depress me so badly? Don't even feel angry anymore. I'll just go home and listen to some other massmarketed creep, like Lou Reed, Bob Dylan or David Bowie - switch my head off for a while.
I've changed my mind. I love marketing. No, it's not love, it's admiration. The sort of sickly respect that the oppressed have for their tyrant. PR people know exactly how the world works and have adapted to it perfectly. They are brilliant. Maybe they don't like it anymore than I do, but they have brains enough to realise that money is EVERYTHING.
Why are there advertisements on this website?
NUT hits out at boyband marketing methods
"Street Teaming itself is morally dubious - sure, the fans get something, but the record labels win because they get free promotion and the stuff they send out costs about 10000000000th the cost of doing real fucking promotion."
Are you for real? My mate used to do street teaming (is that a word?) and he basically spent 3 hours at a gig (that he WANTED to go to), and spent about 20 minutes of that working (until the flyers ran out). So he gets paid a ticket (£10 - £15), for 20 minutes work. Plus gets free albums and t-shirts sporadically. That seems like a pretty damn great deal to me.
What's morally dubious about that? I jus wish I'd joined up when I was at uni!
And as for kids doing it, that simply means that they're cleverer than me, cos I never quite caught on in time. Bravo, I say.
Are you for real? My mate used to do street teaming (is that a word?) and he basically spent 3 hours at a gig (that he WANTED to go to), and spent about 20 minutes of that working (until the flyers ran out). So he gets paid a ticket (£10 - £15), for 20 minutes work. Plus gets free albums and t-shirts sporadically. That seems like a pretty damn great deal to me.
What's morally dubious about that? I jus wish I'd joined up when I was at uni!
And as for kids doing it, that simply means that they're cleverer than me, cos I never quite caught on in time. Bravo, I say.
NUT hits out at boyband marketing methods
Oliver Wright - you make me laugh - you are obviously having a crisis of concience.
Mass marketing is an Evil that we cant avoid so kids might as well get used to it from a young age!
Its all bollocks really - fuck the little kids
Fuck them and damn them to a world of call centres, MaCdonalds, reformed ham and busted basball caps!!
Who could have predicted that an A Team bed spread or Free plastic Womble with your wimpy burger would lead to all of this - eh?!
Mass marketing is an Evil that we cant avoid so kids might as well get used to it from a young age!
Its all bollocks really - fuck the little kids
Fuck them and damn them to a world of call centres, MaCdonalds, reformed ham and busted basball caps!!
Who could have predicted that an A Team bed spread or Free plastic Womble with your wimpy burger would lead to all of this - eh?!
Re: NUT hits out at boyband marketing methods
The promotional material / crap record labels give fans costs them beans to produce, yet they disguise it as "rewards" because it has value for those it's going to.
If they were to pay the people street teaming the equivalent value of what the label is likely to make from the street teaming, it'd cost the record labels a lot more..
As I said, morally dubious - essentially it's work rewarded at a tiny fraction of the value it represents to the label.
If they were to pay the people street teaming the equivalent value of what the label is likely to make from the street teaming, it'd cost the record labels a lot more..
As I said, morally dubious - essentially it's work rewarded at a tiny fraction of the value it represents to the label.
NUT hits out at boyband marketing methods
major labels are cunts when it comes to promotion anyway. I went with my mate to do Blink182 and Keane promotion (she doesnt have many mates...her taste in music might be the reason actually) and all we got were crappy (one sided) flyers that look like they'd been based on a stevie wonder masturbation stain. however, when we did promo fer ludes we got free drinks and badges, and at magic numbers we got free badges to give out to.
anywhere theres my two cents. completely irrelevant i know
anywhere theres my two cents. completely irrelevant i know
NUT hits out at boyband marketing methods
This just in from musicweek.com:
School kid street teams under spotlight
21 December 2004 - 13:19:14
Island Records is to review its policy of using children to promote bands in schools in the new year.
Like many record companies, Island promotes the likes of Busted and McFly by encouraging fans to put up posters or hand out leaflets in schools. A spokesman says "certain issues" surrounding this policy will be up for discussion when key individuals return from Christmas leave.
The Busted website through which children can sign up to the scheme has been hit by server problems and is currently not functioning. But a spokesman says the scheme has not been withdrawn and its future will depend on next year’s meetings.
The policy of using children to promote acts has existed since the 50s but was brought into the spoltlight last weekend through a Guardian investigation.
School kid street teams under spotlight
21 December 2004 - 13:19:14
Island Records is to review its policy of using children to promote bands in schools in the new year.
Like many record companies, Island promotes the likes of Busted and McFly by encouraging fans to put up posters or hand out leaflets in schools. A spokesman says "certain issues" surrounding this policy will be up for discussion when key individuals return from Christmas leave.
The Busted website through which children can sign up to the scheme has been hit by server problems and is currently not functioning. But a spokesman says the scheme has not been withdrawn and its future will depend on next year’s meetings.
The policy of using children to promote acts has existed since the 50s but was brought into the spoltlight last weekend through a Guardian investigation.
NUT hits out at boyband marketing methods
do some of you really believe that by putting up a few posters or changing their internet sign-on names, these poor impressionable kids will turn into evil robots of the corporate machine? oh please.
they'll think it's a bit of a laugh, show off the free stuff to their mates, get bored of making the effort about 3wks later and in a few years time they'll discover there's life outside the pepsi chart and start listening to some more interesting bands.
i got into music when i was that age and it was all total pop sh!t, but it was still enough to make me curious about what other types of music (ie better ones) were about.
they'll think it's a bit of a laugh, show off the free stuff to their mates, get bored of making the effort about 3wks later and in a few years time they'll discover there's life outside the pepsi chart and start listening to some more interesting bands.
i got into music when i was that age and it was all total pop sh!t, but it was still enough to make me curious about what other types of music (ie better ones) were about.
Re: NUT hits out at boyband marketing methods
It seems to me that it's analagous to replacing the school canteen with a McDonald's outlet; now a commonplace tactic in the USA. The kids' health suffers, it costs more, it feeds the vast lumbering corporate homogenisation machine, yet the kids love it. This is what the labels are doing with their marketing strategies. So fierce_kitten, you got into better music, but remember you're probably the exception. Some people never gain awareness of music other than what's been spoonfed to them, and cynical campains like this can only make the situation worse. I say fuk dat.
On a jollier note, my mum is a nursery teacher in a pretty rough area, and she makes a point of playing the kids a variety of music from disparate sources. She says they love it and go home to their parents asking for some Mongolian throat singing or summat. I reckon that kicks arse.
On a jollier note, my mum is a nursery teacher in a pretty rough area, and she makes a point of playing the kids a variety of music from disparate sources. She says they love it and go home to their parents asking for some Mongolian throat singing or summat. I reckon that kicks arse.
Re: NUT hits out at boyband marketing methods
Har har. Because English companies don't do anything wrong, of course.
NUT hits out at boyband marketing methods
hey! that was smart!
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