1 February 2009

TAMS flashes its edits on Stromlo Sponsorship

| johnboy
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A reader has made an interesting observation and sent in the following note:

    One of the joys of NOT using Microsoft software to surf the web is that once in a while you come across a Word document that displays the author’s creative process.

    The refurbished Stromlo Forest Park web site, http://www.stromloforestpark.com.au, features a news item about Jarod Rando. After two clicks on “Read more” Firefox calls OpenOffice to display a TAMS Media Release with the headline:

    STROMLO FOREST PARK SIGN MAJOR SPONSORSHIP DEAL WITH WORLD CHAMPION

    Which then morphs into the more modest:

    STROMLO FOREST PARK PARTNER WITH MULTIPLE TIME NATIONAL CHAMPION.

    There are other interesting changes in the body of the release.

    What the news item does not say is how much this major sponsorship deal is costing the ACT tax payers.

    Four days after signing the major sponsorship deal Mr Rando finished 34th in a field of 72 at the National Championships held at Stromlo Forest Park.

    Timing is everything!

You can see a pdf of the OpenOffice rendering that we’ve kept.

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This can happen when computers are upgraded. Old documents suddenly show all the track changes, when they didn’t previously.

And I’m betting the media person didn’t put synergies in, it is the sort of word that management always want to stick in everywhere. And if a manager bunged it in when the doc was finished, that is probably why that sentence is a bit cack-handed.

It’s not that a mistake was made that’s interesting. It’s what it reveals.

oh no god forbid a human error.. i thought everyone who worked in the public service were machines and didnt make mistakes?!?!?! ha ha ha

More like the synergy of hand on a male rooster

What a rookie mistake. On the other hand, they used the phrase “a synergy that we feel goes hand in hand” with an apparently straight face, so it would appear that the TAMS media unit is not at the cutting edge of PR.

If the ACT govt want to maximise their investment in Stromlo Forest Park as a mountain bike tourist destination, the best way to advertise is sponsor a mountain biker (preferably one who gets overseas on the World Cup MTB circuit). Jared is a born and bred Canberra local, who has raced in the MTB World Cup series & World Championships for the last few years, and in the off-season he has spent many days helping with trail building at Stromlo. So he’s the best choice we currently have.

Probably the only other option would have been to sponsor another Canberra local, Caroline Buchannan, who is the current (and previous) women’s 4X national champ, and winner of the 4X at the Canberra World Cup round last year – although I believe she has less overseas exposure than Rando.

Here’s his resume:
http://www.cycling.org.au/default.asp?id=8851

Ah the joys of unresolved track changes. You would think the media release people would know to check by now. By the way you can see the edits in Word just as easily. Of course if they had resolved the track changes you wouldn’t see them in either Word or Open Office.

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