Trev serves up honey humble pie | Student union rebrand (again) | Farmers’ dry humour
This week, InSider is stung by a foe’s success, fails a uni marketing degree, tunes into what’s hot in harvesters and zooms into a city councillor’s broadcast blues.
InSider served honey humble pie
InSider’s long and fraught relationship with Trev the Bee is no secret.
Ever since the RAA’s hideous winged mascot lobbed into our inbox one fateful morning in May we have called it an “abomination and a slight against nature”, “the chimeric spawn of Satan” and a “bristly weirdo” whose “existence laughs in the face of God”.
Alas, our warnings and abuse have fallen on deaf ears. With heavy hearts, we must announce that Trev was recognised at last night’s Adelaide Advertising and Design Club awards.
Angela Heesom of Heesom Casting received the AADC award for Casting for Advertising for her involvement in bringing Trev to blight us all… sorry… to a deeply appreciative South Australia.
We’re not sure about the casting of a not real thing, but congratulations, Angela!
Ceasefire over, hostilities will now resume.
Student union naming fun and games
University of Adelaide student union YouX is back in the media spotlight this week, after an internal inquiry led to the overturning of most of a recent election result.
A tribunal ruled to void more than two-thirds of the positions on YouX’s student representative council, after claims including that some faction members had taken student phones and voted on their behalf.
All thrilling politics in the best (or maybe not) undergraduate fashion.
But it got InSider fondly reminiscing about the last time Adelaide Uni’s student organisation made headlines; when it strangely and against market research advice ditched its longstandingly sensible “Adelaide University Union” name for YouX.
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The mystifyingly snappy rebrand became an immediate source of ridicule when launched in July 2022, not least because YouX is also the name of a porn site – a fact that was picked up and run by major news sites across Australia. But hey, that’s the price for cutting-edge marketing.
The Adelaide University Union rebrand to YouX became widely known in July 2022.And how much did this marketing triumph cost? Why, only nearly $80,000, enough for a very big night at UniBar and an Uber home.
With that spend, you’d expect the unasked for new name to at least stick around for a while.
Hello, university merger!
The also largely unasked for and much more expensive wedding between the University of Adelaide and UniSA (those playing at home may recall how the state government committed $444 million of our money without asking for a business case) is now only 14 months away.
That poses a deadline challenge for YouX and UniSA counterpart, the vowel-heavy USASA, to come together and form a new student union. Which will also, most likely, mean a new name.
There are already signs the two groups are preparing for life after YouX.
In September, YouX and USASA sent out a survey to students with questions about how the new student union should be structured and governed. One of the questions, titled “Branding”, asks: “When thinking about a name for a new student organisation, which of the following terms resonate the most with you?”
The survey provides 13 options. Disappointingly, none of them are porn sites.
Survey options for the new Adelaide University student organisation name.InSider’s thoughts? “Corporation” is sure to annoy the campus lefties, although “Cooperative” might make an attractive socialist alternative. “Organisation” is a bit bland, as is “Association”, “Representative” and “Council”, while “Guild” seems to be one for the theatre kids or those with a keen interest in medieval German crafts.
But those uninspiring choices are nowhere near as weird as “Senate”, which aside from describing the aspirations of student politicians and law students (there’s a few alumni in Canberra right now), we don’t understand how it relates to a uni organisation.
InSider backs the choice of one university student who sent their survey form to us with the boxes “Adelaide University” and “Union” ticked.
How clear, un-wanky and cheap. Clearly they, and us, are not going to make it big in marketing. (See also: Trev…)
Dry humour in top harvesting soundtrack
The farmers of South Australia undoubtedly have it rough at the moment, with regional mayors around the state telling InDaily it has been the “worst [season] ever”.
One of the driest years on record has left many growers out of pocket and looking for any silver lining, anything to lighten the mood. Lucky for them, Grain Producers SA sought to provide just that, with the release of its ‘Harvest 100’ playlist, as voted on by farmers around the state.
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Now in its third year, the Harvest 100 initiative aims to build a sense of connection in farmers who regularly spend their days alone during harvest. GPSA said music provides “a welcome distraction, boosts morale, and enhances emotional resilience, all of which contribute to maintaining a positive mindset during the busy harvest season”.
So which song made it to the top spot in this playlist? The song to help growers feel more hopeful during this bad season? The one to take their minds off what many call a drought?
“Have you ever seen the rain” by Creedence Clearwater Revival. Laughter is the best medicine, as they say.
No close-up for city councillor
Adelaide Film Festival started this week, and InSider thoroughly enjoyed The Correspondent, a gripping drama about the ordeal of jailed foreign correspondent Peter Greste.
The Kafkaesque drama based on Greste’s memoir is an important story about the war on truth and a solemn reminder of the risks of conflict reporting; 779 journalists were jailed at some point in 2023 according to Reporters Without Borders.
The sentiment among our reporters after The Correspondent was gratitude to be working in Adelaide, where we can don our InSider caps, reveal fun truths erring on the side of taking the piss and not risk a jail sentence in doing so.
So, in that vein and on a much lighter note, one councillor wants his quest for truth in Town Hall to be captured on camera too.
Councillor Henry Davis, an InSider semi-regular and tax lawyer familiar with the SA court system (he’s involved in three defamation cases from his current term) requested to film the council meeting on October 8.
A council spokesperson told InSider Lord Mayor Jane Lomax-Smith denied the request since council meetings are already live-streamed each week, and therefore requests to film in the council chamber are not common.
You, dear reader, could join the 87 riveted viewers who tuned in online on the night in question.
Davis told InSider his request was to “film Australia’s most stupid council agenda item – banning nuclear weapons”.
“The LM just flat out refused without any discussion and essentially said that we have live streaming so there was no need to film. She has on numerous occasions allowed TV cameras to film in the meeting chamber,” Davis said.
“Clearly there are different rules for different people.”
Well, guilty. InDaily has previously gotten permission from the Lord Mayor to take photos during meetings to assist with our regular reporting.
“I understand that she doesn’t want to cast the City of Adelaide in a bad light, because the topic of discussion was absolutely ridiculous, however, that’s not how an open and transparent government functions,” Davis said.
The topic of discussion in question was Davis’ argument that the council should consider a nuclear tourist attraction.
While the Mayor refused to let Davis add to his showreel, she had some nice words for his wardrobe.
“It’s good to see you dressed appropriately and behaving in a respectful manner,” Lomax-Smith said in the October 8 meeting.
“What was the reference to the way I’m dressing?” Davis asked.
“I just think you look immaculate tonight, I’m really impressed, it was a compliment councillor,” Lomax-Smith said.
