Firstly, I don’t live in New South Wales so I couldn’t enter the competition. And if I was really keen I would have put my foot to the ground and saved my money for a trip to London. As I am at university and have an exam at the end of October I didn’t want to jeopardize my unit grades and course by going off travelling.
Secondly I don’t know much about radio competitions as I don’t listen to the radio. After looking at the conditions of the competition the person had to state why they were a Russell Crowe fan and would be required to answer a series of questions. The last person standing was the winner. I don’t have a problem with the actual winner or last girl standing. But I do have a problem with a second prize been given away which was due to a bungle and not part of the competition.
The competition bungle involved CGee (I won’t use her name but if you are a follower of Russell Crowe’s on Twitter you will know who she is) a long term Russell Crowe fan listening in the United States who took it upon herself to contact the alleged winner on his Twitter account and congratulate him that he had won the competition. The fan responded on his Twitter account that he was looking forward to having a drink with Rusty. Most fans who know Russell Crowe know he doesn’t like being called Rusty. To the best of my knowledge the competition was for an airline ticket, concert tickets and $1000 spending money. There was nothing about a meet and greet. The CGee tweet was picked up by Russell Crowe and circulated to his 2.6 million + followers. Russell Crowe asked the radio station to verify the winner via Twitter.
As it turned out the wrong winner had been declared. CGee apologised and the radio announcers responded ‘no worries’. The tweets were then deleted. Russell Crowe jumped in and awarded another prize to the runner up. CGee is a personal friend of Russell Crowe’s, followed by him on Twitter and an international member of his rugby league club South Sydney. CGee’s husband was/is head of the Reuters news agency in New York City.
CGee despite her ‘mistake’ was supported by Russell Crowe on his Twitter site on Saturday morning by retweeting one of her posts. Me on the other hand was blocked by Russell Crowe after I had raised questions about the competition which to me seemed a little too well organised for that early in the morning. Of course I am not the only person recently to find themselves blocked about stuff on the IGP albums and videos. A fan was blocked when she raised questions that one of the videos for his album for a song called ‘Fight Another Day’ only contained images of males doing extreme sports. She tweeted Russell Crowe videos of females doing extreme sports and was blocked. A fair enough comment that the video was perhaps sexist in only containing males.
Back to the competition. The two final contestants had managed to negotiate Sydney peak hour traffic to be in the radio studio to answer the final questions well before their day jobs I was tweeted on Twitter when I raised a few concerns. By 10 am a photo was circulated with the announcer Whippa and the two winners. The male contestant a young good looking guy in his 20’s had on an AFL jersey from the club Essendon. (Not a middle aged housewife or obese 20 something female or a young guy in a suit on the way to the office). Essendon were playing the Sydney Swans in a finals match in Sydney on that Saturday on the 9 September, 2017. For those of you who are not Australian or live in Australia Fitzy the other radio announcer is an ex-AFL player.
The photo was retweeted by Russell Crowe on Twitter to his 2.6 million + followers. The photo placed the male in the Essendon jersey at the centre of the photo while the young female who was the actual winner was on the left and nearly pushed out of the photo. The competition was for the winner of a competition for Russell Crowe fans not an AFL promotion.
Russell Crowe knows well the value of displaying his South Sydney rugby league club merchandise at important photo opportunities around the world. It is well documented Russell Crowe gives his famous friends and celebrities merchandise to wear to promote his South Sydney Rugby League club. Russell Crowe also wears the merchandise on a regular basis himself.
Russell Crowe is also famous for doing deals that promote himself, his movies and his rugby club through the use of merchandise. In another deal I would like to allege the singer Bon Jovi wore a South Sydney jersey at a press conference in Australia. During the same year Russell tweeted his love for the NFL team the New York Jets on his official Twitter account reaching thousands of fans. Bon Jovi was friends with the owner of the New York Jets and played at their home stadium in New York City. There is a list as long as your arm of the deals Russell Crowe has been involved in.
After a brief read of the completion guidelines offered by Nova 96.7 in Sydney I found two alleged breaches. The first being that for a competition of skill chance plays no part in determining the winner and each valid entry was to be individually judged (by the representative of the promoter) based on the judging criteria of the promoter…and the second ‘that the terms on the condition that their entry and its use by the Promoter will not be in breach of any third property intellectual property rights’.
The second winner won a prize based on chance and that was a bungle and was therefore not entitled to a prize which I believe was deliberate. I would also like to allege that wearing an AFL jersey by the contestant may be in breach of the intellectual property rights unless it had been negotiated before the competition. The photo of the contestant in the AFL jersey was spread around the world on social media and would have been a lot of free and good publicity in particular for a club like Essendon who has been plagued with drug allegations and now reaching the finals against Sydney. It would also open the radio station up to a series of other allegations if contestants were to wear clothing advertising.
I certainly hope the winner of the competition has a great time. To be honest if Russell Crowe hadn't blocked me I would have walked away. For me this isn’t the first time I have been blocked by Russell Crowe. Being Australian I just don’t like the nagging feeling I may have been conned. I certainly don’t have the gift of sucking up and keeping my mouth closed when I see something I don’t agree with. But then that is the great thing about being in Australia and being an Australian we speak up. If people can’t say things without someone being offended then it really isn’t Australia or a place I really want to be.
