Please note: Gruen Nation is a spin-off series of The Gruen Transfer. The first season of Gruen Nation aired during the 2010 federal election and as a part of season 3 of The Gruen Transfer. The second season of Gruen Nation originally aired in 2013 during the 2013 federal election and as part of season 6 of the rebranded Gruen Planet.
Four seasons into The Gruen Transfer and what have we learned? That most of us can be bought or sold. And that sometimes, it actually feels good. We're all coerced and serenaded by advertising, an industry devoted to changing our minds and our behaviour.
But advertising is not the only industry that wants to get inside our heads and move the furniture around. Which brings us to spin, branding, and image control. Along with advertising, they form the nervous system of twenty-first century life. They're the levers pulled behind most news stories, the silent partners in public debates.
Gruen thinks it's time to look at these dark arts as well. Because everyone is on the sell. Tyrants. Sports stars. Actors. Criminals. Politicians. Deities. Charities. Entire nations. They're all trying to persuade us to think, buy or do things that we weren't thinking, buying or doing yesterday.
Gruen Planet, our latest show – in advertising they call it a brand extension – will run an x-ray across the world each week, unpicking the stories that affect us all. How do you protect an unstable government when a backbencher goes feral? Does Tiger cut it anymore as a business? How has the Arab uprising been turned into Western profit? What was the Dalai Lama doing on MasterChef? Who do you turn to when your family name is your brand and it's become toxic?
Each week, host Wil Anderson will be joined by regulars Todd Sampson and Russel Howcroft, along with some of Australia's smartest communications experts. They will take us inside the persuasion business and explain why the world appears, not as it really is, but as others want us to see it. Why everything is spin, branding, advertising and image control.
In this episode:
The Spin File – Hooters and 9/11, Weight Watchers in women's clothing section of department store, and nose sucking competition in Russia; the Image Renovators – Julia Gillard, prime minister; the Pitch – footballers are footballers, not role models; Spin of the Week – Louis the Fly is not dead, tobacco company sponsors primary schools in China, and a satirical take on anti–carbon tax ads; How do you sell – the Foster's beer conglomerate; the Worst Product Ever – the 'Cheers to You' self-motivational CD.
Important topics in this episode include the concept of 'spin, branding and image control', and the ways in which a political figure's negative public image could be constructed, deconstructed and reconstructed. As well, we see how a large corporation attempts to explain to the public its sudden repositioning not only in the commercial market, but the perception of its changed status as an Australian 'icon'.
Curriculum links
This study guide is mainly aimed at middle- and upper-secondary school levels, with relevance to:
- English
- Media Studies
- Graphics
- Ethics and Philosophy
- Psychology
- Business Studies
- Marketing
- SOSE/HSIE
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