Masterchef NZ

We may complain about our programming here but at Throng Australia we have had nothing but great help from the network publicists – the same can’t be said in New Zealand. Throng.co.nz is the biggest and most successful TV web site in New Zealand yet this is how one of their major networks treat them.

From throng.co.nz

Every major TV network in the world that we work with regularly sends out publicity material which we gladly publish for them because, well, we love talking about TV.  When the latest reality TV show hits the airwaves, our inbox gets flooded with bios and photos of the contestants from publicists desperate to get their content talked about and promoted for, in the most part, free.

Contrast this with a recent, and yet not too unfamiliar, email exchange with TVNZ.

Throng:

    Hi [publicist],

    Is it possible for us to receive the profile images of the top 25 contestants for use on our website?

    Thanks,

    [throng]

TVNZ:

    Hi [throng]

    Thanks for your email requesting profile pictures of the Top 25 MasterChef contestants.

    At TVNZ we’re very cautious about where our images go, and don’t send them out indiscriminately.

    Could you please tell me what you need the pictures for and how they will be used?

    Many thanks

    [publicist]

Throng:

    Hi [publicist],

    Thanks for getting back to me. The images would simply be used for MasterChef contestant bio pages that we have created on Throng.co.nz and also further down the line to highlight who has been eliminated after each episode.

    Thanks,

    [throng]

TVNZ:

    Hi [throng]

    We’re currently being very selective with the provision of our MasterChef contestant images, so were are not sending any additional ones out at this stage.

    Regards

    [publicist]

Original story click here

Now get ready for this!

The following comment was just posted on yesterday’s story about TVNZ’s bizarre decision to withhold publicity content from Throng. 

“Maybe it would have been more professional to deal with this personally one to one rather than displaying your grievances on a site? It’s a pretty petty tactic to display an email chain and can be seen as trying to bully TVNZ into helping. Perhaps if you’d had a modicum more sense about dealing with relationships rather than bitching and moaning about this, you may have been more successful. Instead you now look like a spoilt child having a tantrum and venting pathetically into cyberspace?”

The commenter is from TVNZ.  It is incredibly unhelpful and hypocritical when there are conversations currently being had and questions that remain unanswered. Original link is here. Wow – talk about unprofessional! Thankyou again to all the Aussie publicists who help us so much!