This guy is working for nothing - his handler is getting all the peanuts!

Optus are pretty consistent in miss communicating their brand values, confusing users with endless bundles and treating their potential customers like idiots.

They also use animals in their campaigns for the last four years!

I’ve sent them an email a few weeks ago explaining the Animal Copyright concept and asked for some clarification.

Here is their response:

Hello
Thanks for your interesting email which has landed with me today. We always ensure that the animals we use in our advertising are looked after, both financially and otherwise. We pay the animal handler a fee for the animal and the handler via the particular production company.

Best regards
Elaine
Elaine McGrath
Group Marketing Communications Manager
Corporate Marketing
Singtel Optus Pty Limited

Well Elaine, I was not asking about fees for handlers, nor fees for the production company – It was about paying the animals themselves in a way of donating 1% of your marketing budget towards animal welfare organizations.

With the world caught up in copyright wars, It’s time for us to understand that nature owns copyright to its products. If we use them, we need to pay.

It is about preservation of wild species and not about giving more money to the production companies or handlers of captive animals.

My hunch is that Optus is not playing “thick” - They just are.

If you have a blog, please mention the Animal Copyright issue and Optus.

Let’s see how long it will take them to “get it”.

Anyway, I hope their new ad agency will fix them up with some real creative.