Squandered Opportunity

In my home of Auckland, TVNZ are tonight screening the first episode of the hit UK drama Hustle.

Looking like a cross between Snatch and Ocean's Eleven, the network have been pumping this baby for weeks with promos setting out to titillate and encourage us to dive in there on the night.

None of the promos really got me going though like some thing that I caught out of the corner of my eye a few nights ago advertising the Auckland Harbour Bridge being for sale. Details were apparently planted in the Herald of the next day ... it was shaping like a media bonanza ... I had to see it.

So yeah, they'd taken out a full page ad (right-hand page, inside back front section - prime space) advertising our bridge being for sale and referring us to a website for Clacy Hughes Realty ... (or Clacy Huges Realty in the title bar)

So what does one do .. well one goes and has a look and yes, its pretty much a replica of the print ad. same picture, (albeit cut down) but with one difference, blinking text enticed me to CLICK HERE to view tenders.

So I did that too and then I was greeted with a screen that told me I'd been hustled. Hustled? For clicking through on that? Maybe if I had been genuinely tricked. Great idea for TVNZ to try stepping outside the bounds of their usual promo activity but not quite enough to convince me ... Having come up with the idea they could have at least seen it through ...