In a week which saw unusually low and high pressure systems combine to suck air straight up to New Zealand from the Antarctic and heavy snow fell across the South Island, lower North Island and Auckland for the first time in 76 years, a deep PR anticyclone visited Telecom NZ and looks likely to hang around for some time. The NZ media is looking on in disbelief and outrage at Telecom NZ ‘Abstain for the All Blacks’ campaign, which, while not yet officially sanctioned and scheduled (if sanctioned) to start next week has been (intentionally or unintentionally) leaked.

The tongue-in-cheek campaign is fronted by former All Black captain Sean Fitzpatrick and driven by the Telecom-sponsored official All Blacks’ fan site, BackingBlack. The campaign will ask supporters to avoid sex during the Rugby World Cup to demonstrate their support for the team and participants will receive black rubber finger-rings to show they have signed up. The New Zealand Herald front page is damning of the proposed campaign – a view shared by all NZ news outlets. Perhaps even worse the leak is causing much amusement for Australian news teams.

I won’t comment on the merits or shortcomings of the campaign. What I will comment on is the experience of being a member of the team responsible for the initiative – it was under my boss and Chief Market Officer of Telecom NZ, Kieren Cooney’s leadership that the campaign was developed. And now he’s having a right kicking from all and sundry with even the CEO distancing himself from the campaign which ‘he’d not yet approved.’

It is fascinating to watch as emergency meetings are convened to work out what to do as the leak (which has got things slightly wrong) is picked up by all significant media channels and commentators is universally ridiculed and the story gathers momentum. Kieren had to front up on various news and TV magazine programmes and is visibly ageing as the week goes on. He admits to not having slept for 48 hours after the story first broke.

As the week progresses the leak is reported globally and damned universally and by Thursday the (very expensive) campaign was officially binned but the media frenzy does not seem to be abating (it’s still  being discussed on the radio as I write this post three days after the decision to bin).

Post-script: Kieren Cooney left Telecom NZ to work in Australia a few months later and talks about the experience here.