Register yourself for some mind-expanding springtime new-ness at www.30dayshasseptember.com and help raise money for The Ted Noffs Foundation Street University.

By encouraging your friends to sponsor you for every new experience you try or via a one-off payment through your fanpage, you will be supporting a program that provides services for Aussie kids who have been affected by substance abuse, mental illness and/or homelessness.

The concept for 30 Days Has September was dreamed up by a group of mates who decided that spring was the perfect time to get out and live a little.

As one of the co-founders Van Vuuren says, “It all started as a bit of Facebook fun amongst our friends and has snowballed into this major charity project. We chose to support the Street University because it’s all about new beginnings and a fresh start for those Aussie kids that have been dealt some hard cards in life. It’s a perfect fit!”

To sign up, please visit www.30dayshasseptember.com

Please click here for more information on The Ted Noffs Foundation

-ENDS-

Media Enquiries:
Klick Communications
Emma Gardiner – 02 8353 7106 / 0419 276 446 / emma@klick.com.au
Margarita Peker – 02 8353 7103 / 0414 438 870 / rita@klick.com.au

The Chive made some internet waves this week with, what it boils down to, was a lie.  As someone that occasionally dabbles with internet truth shennanegins, I found this to be interesting if somewhat repellent.  But rather than write at length about  how saying something online, and then 24 hours later saying “just kidding, we lied” is about the lowest form of hoax you can perpetrate, I found myself delving into the seamy underworld of online “comedy” content sites.

There’s a billion of them out there; enough so that they must all do enough business to keep the lights on and their posters plied with free snacks.  So here’s five crummy things these content farms generate in order to build an audience.

1) Link out extensively:    Linking out is just good internet manners, and attribution is key to keeping this behavior above board, but why bother hiring writers to come up with original content when you can piggy back on the hard work of others?

See also: not crediting photos.

Key offender: The Chive.

2) Links to pictures of user submitted hot girls:  Far be it from me to go all prudish.  As a red-blooded American male I like boobs as much as the next guy.

See also: using sexy pictures to link to articles that are decidedly not sexy.

LGT article on weightloss and lactose intolerance: HOT!

Key Offender: College Humor, which spends so much time and effort creating things that are generally pretty awesome that it feels nit-picky to go after them for this.  How ’bout every site that links to college humors “Cute College Girl of the day” posts.

3) Pop-Unders that lead to other content-aggregator blogs:  “In case you missed our “Forty stars without make-up” post, here’s another site that linked to it”

Key offender: Manofest,

4) Giving your audience a cutesy nickname in the hopes that it builds community.  Blame Star Trek for this one.  Ever since Trekkers (not Trekkies, mind you) coined themselves as such, having a single nickname by which you can identify others that enjoy passively consuming the same media as you has been taken as a given for building an audience.

Offenders:  The Chive (Chivers), Fark (farkers), Klick.com.au (The Klick Communications Awesome Sexy Rock-me-Amadeus-a-teers).

5) Shameless Geek Pandering:  I’ve got a whole rant lined up about everyone self-identifying as a geek these days (if only hipsters had the same gumption).  For the moment, it’s still seen as link-bait to have a picture from Star Wars, or the “hottest cosplay girls from Comic Con”.  This trick may work for the moment but…hang on…damn that is some hot cosplay.

5) Lists:  Internet reading is a lazy browsy affair.  Dividing a subject, no matter how difficult or subjective into a “definitive” list, is sure to start an argument amongst your readers about whether or not Slave Leia truly is sexier than Selina Kyle. (Which, for th record, she most certainly is not).

Key Offenders:  *gulp*

Series four concludes the five-year run of When The Boat Comes In, and features financial hardship, love lost and the bonds of friends and countrymen. Jack reaches rock bottom after numerous drink binges in Liverpool and retreats to Gallowshields; finding romance with a new woman and earning a living ‘ducking and diving’ bankrupt goods.

When The Boat Comes In is a window to a world gone by and is packed with lovable and entertaining characters living in Britain’s days of confusion and sociopolitical upheaval.

When The Boat Comes In  – 6 Disc Set – RRP $59.95
DVD Release – 4th November 2010
For further information please visit www.acornmediaau.com

Media Contact:
Florence Sandford
Klick Communications
T:02 8353 7101 Email: Florence@klick.com.au

In this adaptation Catherine Tate plays Karen, a frustrated woman in her thirties whose whole life and identity is shattered when she discovers a long-kept secret. Holly Grainger plays Karen’s clever and hormonal teenage daughter Charlotte, while Anne Reid appears as Karen’s mother, Nan, who is suffering from Alzheimer’s. Robert Pattinson is also a supporting character as the lovable yet nerdy, Daniel Gale.

The Bad Mother’s Handbook presents an insight into the life of motherhood and childhood, dwelling on the themes that no two mothers are alike, but that ultimately love is the most important thing of all.

The Bad Mother’s Handbook  – RRP $29.95
DVD Release – 4th November 2010
For further information please visit www.acornmediaau.com


Media Contact:
Florence Sandford
Klick Communications
T:02 8353 7101 Email: Florence@klick.com.au

Following the successful first series, Oz and James are back in full force in Oz and James Drink To Britain. This time around, world famous wine connoisseur Oz Clarke, and Top Gear’s James May embark on a heroic quest to discover the drink, or drinks, that define Great Britain: is it traditional ale, lager, cider, whiskey, gin, vodka or or even… wine?

Travelling in style in a Rolls Royce Corniche, with a caravan in tow, the pair tackle their subject with great passion. From tasting a special beer brewed from an ancient recipe in Scotland and a successful micro-brewery to the smallest commercial brewery in the world, Oz and James leave no British drinking hole unturned.

Oz & James Drink To Britain is packed with fascinating characters, surprising facts and a great deal of irreverence, as Oz and James celebrate all that is best about drink and drinking.

Oz and James Drink To Britain  – 2 Disc Set – RRP $34.95
DVD Release – 4th November 2010
For further information please visit www.acornmediaau.com

Media Contact:
Florence Sandford
Klick Communications
T:02 8353 7101 Email: Florence@klick.com.au

British television presenter Kirstie Allsopp is back with Kirstie’s Homemade Home, where she is on a mission to transform a dilapidated country cottage in Devon into the ultimate ‘homemade’ home, with everything either made in the UK, or made by her. She wants to prove that it’s possible to get your hands on the good stuff, without having to import cheap and ubiquitous products from overseas.

In each episode Kirstie renovates a room and creates a unique and personal dream interior. She rampages through reclamation yards in search of beautiful bargain furniture to restore; hunting for the best handmade craft and design in Britain, while learning how to create unique and exclusive pieces of her own.

A 3-Disc set guaranteed to delight home and crafty types alike, Acorn Media is proud to present Kirstie’s Homemade Home available from all good DVD retailers on November 4.

Kirstie’s Homemade Home  – 3 Disc Set – RRP $39.95
DVD Release – 4th November 2010
For further information please visit www.acornmediaau.com

Media Contact:
Florence Sandford
Klick Communications
T:02 8353 7101 Email: Florence@klick.com.au

Based on a true story, Breaker Morant is regarded as one of Australia’s most iconic war stories, and the re-release of the DVD is bringing it back to life as it’s never been seen before.

Set during the Boer War in 1901, this movie tells the story of a unit of the Bushveldt Carbineers, made up mainly of Australians who are ordered by the British High Command to fight the Boer and take no prisoners. An order that proved fatal to a man they call “The Breaker” – Lieutenant Harry Morrant.

Starring Jack Thompson, Edward Woodward and Bryan Brown, Breaker Morant is a true Australian story which brings the horror of war and injustice to light in one of Australia’s most acclaimed movies ever made.

Breaker Morant – Available this October on DVD and Blu-Ray in a Premium 2-Disc Edition Packed With Exclusive Extras:
•    The Breaker (Award Winning Documentary)
•    The Myth Exploded (Director’s Postscript)
•    Theatrical Poster – Original Poster
•    Photo Gallery

Breaker Morant  – 2 Disc Set – DVD $14.95 & Blu Ray $24.95
Release Date – 7th October 2010
For further information please visit www.reeldvd.com.au

Media Contact:
Florence Sandford
Klick Communications
T: 02 8353 7101 Email: Florence@klick.com.au

“Hey Friend/Business Acquaintance/Person Who Signed Up on An Email List

As you know, my blog/non-profit/site/lucious booty is nominated for <previously unheard of award>.  We’re in the home stretch, but there’s still time to help me out.

All you have to do is go to this site <insert site>, and perform an increasingly byzantine set of instructions, click the vote button, and write a blog post about the contest.   If we win, we’ll get $10,000/a badge we can put on our site/invited to open for the Black Crows at the BFE County Fair.

YOU CAN VOTE EVERY DAY SO PLEASE GO BACK EVERY 24 HOURS AND REPEAT THIS LABORIOUS PROCESS!”

Or something to that effect.

Everything from grant applications, to artistic awards, to fun little social media contests.  I’ll admit to being guilty of sending this kind of email out on more than one occasion. (Did you vote for SGAOJ in the Streamys by chance?)  but we’ve hit the tipping point of exhaustion for these kinds of competitions, and it’s for one simple reason:

The people that start them don’t make them fun to participate in.

Sure, if you’ve got a worthy charity there is definitely some incentive to be had in helping out a worthy cause.  Charity Water, Chase Community Giving….even the Pepsi Refresh grants provided a warm little nugget of Do-Goodery.  Unfortunately, these worthy causes are starting to be drowned out in noise of contests whose winner should essentially be crowned “Person Who Drove The Most Traffic to My Site”.

These contests are one tool for social media engagement, but they desperately need to evolve.  I was speaking with a choreographer about these contests (many of which are aimed at not-for-profits in lieu of grant money) who declared they were a waste of time for arts organizations…”Because we’re essentially telling people to vote for us instead of hungry children.”

And pitting two worthy causes against one another is no way to build an audience.  The next generation of this type of online competition must include the voters and give them a reason to participate.  Make it fun for the voters, and the “I Need Your Help” email can come out of the Spam Filter, and back into the conversation.

July 2010: Your Dad was the first person to explain the form guide to you, took you to your first race day and he showed you how to pick a good horse so it’s only right that you should give him a horseracing legend for Father’s Day. Woodford Reserve Bourbon – a gift he will love (and drink).

Goodbye sock drawer, hello top shelf!

Woodford Reserve is available from Vintage Cellars and Woolworths Liquor for RRP $74.99

For further information about Woodford Reserve Bourbon, please visit www.woodfordreserve.com.au

-ENDS

Media Enquiries:
Klick Communications
Emma Gardiner – 02 8353 7106 / 0419 276 446 / emma@klick.com.au