Does the Grand Prix really sell Melbourne and Australia?
Oh, how I've enjoy the Grand prix. It helps that I was hospitalised (I think I mean received the hospitality of) by Mumm Champagne, over the years sitting next to various former Miss Worlds of Australia for breakfast. It helps that I skulled champagne all day as well as cleared the wax out of my ears right above the pits. Thanks guys.
I think at the time Fosters was the lead sponsor or was it ING? And the whole world saw brand Melbourne on TV - a rather dry looking park and a crowd full of beer bellied blokes in branded Ferrari shirts who really prefer driving a big V8 that looks like a boot than anything styled by pininfarina.
Still it shows that we are a player as cities go, big enough to lose tens of millions each year and fill the huge money bags of the tiny yet very rich and unfeasible tanned Bernie Ecclestone.
But it's kind of lazy advertising. Just think what kind of ad campaign you could run with the odd $30 million in small change. And think of the social costs in Albert Park being closed for most of the year and the local restaurants that empty because of a mass evacuation of residents.
I'm not saying to finance Lara Bingle's next $500,000 Aston Martin but surely Melbourne can punch above its weight somehow. Much of the City's marketing is based on food (and op chefs including ferran Adria, Heston Blumenthal and Fergus Henderson seem to love the place), comedy and all sorts of arty farty stuff.
Isn't raw unadulterated petrol guzzling, greenhouse gas generating event like this at odds with that?
Now excuse me while I catch a plane to Sydney to escape this nonsense for the Archibald, Sulman and Wynn prizes.
Coming soon: Why nailing a live man to a piece of wood is brilliant marketing.
Oh, how I've enjoyed the Grand prix. It helps that I was hospitalised (I think I mean received the hospitality of) by Mumm Champagne, over the years sitting next to various former Miss Worlds of Australia for breakfast.
It helps that I skulled champagne all day as well as cleared the wax out of my ears right above the pits. Thanks guys.
I think at the time Foster's was the lead sponsor or was it ING? And the whole world saw brand Melbourne on TV - a rather dry looking park and a crowd full of beer bellied blokes in branded Ferrari shirts who really prefer driving a big V8 that looks like a boot rather than anything styled by Pininfarina.
Still, it shows that we are a player as cities go, big enough to lose tens of millions each year and fill the huge money bags of the tiny yet very rich and unfeasibly tanned Bernie Ecclestone.
But it's kind of lazy advertising. Just think what kind of ad campaign you could run with the odd $30 million in small change. And think of the social costs in Albert Park being closed for most of the year and the local restaurants that empty because of a mass evacuation of residents.
I'm not saying to finance Lara Bingle's next $500,000 Aston Martin but surely, Melbourne can punch above its weight somehow else. Much of the city's marketing is based on food (and op chefs including Ferran Adria, Heston Blumenthal and Fergus Henderson seem to love the place), comedy and all sorts of arty farty stuff.
Isn't a raw, unadulterated petrol guzzling, greenhouse gas generating event like this at odds with that?
Now excuse me while I catch a plane to escape this nonsense for the Archibald, Sulman and Wynn prizes at the Art Galery of NSW.
Coming soon: Why nailing a live man to a piece of wood is brilliant marketing.
