Berlei has come under fire on the latest episode of Media Watch for restricting Serena Williams from responding to Australian journalists on her most recent press tour.
The bra brand has brought Williams, an ambassador for Berlei, to Australia as part of its Breast Cancer Awareness Month push.
Williams has been inteviewed by The Project, Mamamia and the Hughesy & Kate radio show to promote the cause.
Media Watch host Paul Barry criticised Berlei for limiting the questions asked of Williams, and making Ten sit on an interview recording for more than a week to comply with an embargo.
With the controversy surrounding Williams' most recent US Open campaign tantrum, Berlei told journalists if they asked about the game, or the Mark Knight cartoon that followed, she would fail to co-operate.
On last night’s episode of The Project, when Lisa Wilkinson asked if Williams if she had any regrets about the US Open, her publicist interjected and asked her to change the topic.
Lisa chats with Serena about the US Open code violation, sexism in tennis, and her new Breast cancer awareness campaign. #TheProjectTV pic.twitter.com/9UzWciU5T1
— The Project (@theprojecttv) September 23, 2018
Berlei also forced radio hosts Dave Hughes and Kate Langbroek to withold an exclusive interview. Hughes stated they were prevented from running the piece for a few weeks.
“The company that Serena is promoting, and thus why she’s doing interviews, calls the shots,” Hughes said in a Tweet.
Langbroek said Berlei’s interference was “ridiculous”, “frustrating” and “counterproductive”.
Barry explained that media outlets are forced to adhere to Berlei's rules or risk not getting the interviews again.
"It’s increasingly a problem for interviews with celebrities who enforce their own PR agenda. If you don’t play by their rules you don’t get to play the game again," he said.
Berlei is no stranger to controversy with its most recent ad campaign garnering more than 100 complaints and its 2017 campaign being banned from Facebook.
Berlei has issued a statement in response to Media Watch:
“Berlei Australia has worked with ambassador, Serena Williams for over a decade. Most recently, Berlei worked with Serena Williams on a not-for-profit project, which she stars in for Breast Cancer Network Australia (BCNA).
The campaign for the I Touch Myself Project, has Serena Williams sharing a breast health message, encouraging women to self-examine and to support BCNA by purchasing a bra designed for the campaign, where 100% of the profits will be donated to Breast Cancer Network Australia.
The timing of the campaign has always been to align it to Breast Cancer Awareness Month contrary to any suggestions otherwise. As such, all interviews were pre-arranged a month prior and not timed to the US Open, but granted to promote the campaign. All media involved with the interviews were clearly briefed about the timeline.
Questions relating to the US Open were not banned, however in order to support I Touch Myself Project and Breast Cancer Network Australia, they were asked to be kept at a minimum so that focus could remain on the campaign."
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