The 'Win a Wife' competition saga continues

The reprehensible 'Win a Wife' competition being run by New Zealand Radio Station The Rock, which has a prize of a trip to Ukraine to pick a bride from an agency, has already been the subject of criticism from feminists and politicians, but in the last few days they have been criticised by New Zealand's small Ukrainian community and even the Ukrainian ambassador to Australia and New Zealand. Ukrainian Association of New Zealand chairwoman Nataliya Poshyvaylo-Tolwer told The New Zealand Herald the competition was a “shameful promotion stunt”

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I am a tall blonde woman and I hold a public speaking job and the first thing I get asked 90 per cent of the time is 'did you get here by the internet'. It doesn't matter that I have a degree in business economics or all my other achievements. This is just perpetuating that stereotype.

Ukrainian ambassador Valentyn Adomaytis, wrote to the Broadcasting Standards Authority, as well as The Rock's parent company MediaWorks and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade. Adomaytis called the competition an “indecent demonstration of low taste and cultural standards as well as utter disrespect and violation of human dignity” he described the radio stations advertising for the competition as “humiliating and derogatory”.

At 5pm today, The Rock held a press conference to make an announcement about the future of the competition. While many hoped the station would finally pull the plug on it, instead they just changed the name, it is now know as “win a trip to beautiful Ukraine for twelve nights and meet East European hot lady who maybe one day you marry competition”. The evening DJ's running the competition expressed their relief at this, as the station has lost advertisers due to the controversy.

As I've noted previously, this competition is a big marketing ploy for The Rock, and it seems they are thinking more long term than the few advertisers that have cut ties with them. The backlash to this stunt has resulted in a counter-backlash in the form of a pseudo-political campaign in support of The Rock, which is the kind of brand loyalty the station wants in this age of social media. Blogger Scuba Nurse has highlighted the vitriolic comments posted on the pro 'win a wife' Facebook page, and shortly after the press conference a listener rang the studio to proclaim “suck that Sue Bradford” a reference to the former Green Party MP who gained media attention for her criticism of the competition.

These people are the target audience of The Rock. The station can continue to sell advertising that plays on the anxieties of New Zealand men- just prior to the press conference listeners were treated to a commercial for a hair loss cure; "its not a cosmetic solution, its real hair!". Another commercial was clearly targeted at the stations other audience, those in the workplace listening to the 'no repeat work day'; “tired of working for someone else?” asks the voice over, before talking about a wonderful opportunity to be your own boss with a business loan from ANZ bank. The Rock have lost advertisers, they have maybe lost listeners, but in the MediaWorks boardroom, they will be toasting a win tonight.