For a relatively young country, Australia can be so often divided over important national issues. The carbon tax, religion, the war in Iraq, asylum seekers, education reform. Hell, in our last election we couldn’t even agree on who our government leader should be!
In a multicultural society such as ours there are always going to be differences of opinion. This week however, it was nice to see for a change that this great nation of ours can come together and unite as one against a common enemy: Delta Goodrem.
Nine's new program The Voice has not only helped Australia discover some of its finest singing talent, but also showed us how much of a dickhead Delta Goodrem is. After only three episodes we have been exposed to one walkout, three crying scenes and at my last count 27 viewer cringes. It seems as though everything that comes out of her over-sized mouth triggers a gag reflex.
When she speaks I feel a very sudden and overwhelming urge to reach for the remote control, but then stop myself, unable to look away, much like a car accident.
Unfortunately for Delta, the show has performed phenomenally well, revealing her douche baggery to record audience numbers. And it seems I’m not alone in my evaluation, with a poll on smh.com.au yesterday (see below), in which only 8% of 10,000 people declared she is the best judge. A similar popularity rating to that of Warwick Capper for PM.
You may think my above comments are a little over the top but the truth is, I’m broken-hearted.
I, like many others, loved Delta. Lost in her ‘innocent eyes' I believed she was Australia’s sweetheart and am now in mourning over the loss of a beloved celebrity crush. I would have been more than happy to go through life thinking of Delta as a dream boat, rather than an overpriced dingy. As they say, ignorance is bliss.
Which brings me to my point - yes, there was one - sometimes less is more. Delta is the perfect example of too much communication actually becoming a bad thing. We are all so keen to have as engaging communications as possible and show consumers our “true brand personality” when to be honest, most of the time it’s better left unsaid.
Brands too often get themselves all excited about channels like experiential and social media that will allow a deeper connection with their audience, but in doing so run a huge and, usually unacknowledged, risk of “doing a Goodrem”.
There’s no questioning the quality of Delta’s singing voice (her product), but unfortunately that is no longer the focus of her brand in the public’s eye. No matter how undeniably good her product remains, it will now be tainted due to the over-communicated weaker aspect of the Delta brand: her personality.
So before we all jump on the next ‘platform of consumer engagement’… let’s ask ourselves that very important question: “are we doing a Goodrem?”.