By Julian Lee and Caroline Marcus
THE website of a girl's romantic quest to find her Prince Charming - a mystery man in a jacket - has been removed after it was unmasked as a fake, leading to a barrage of complaints by internet users.
Fashion retailer Witchery and its advertising agency suspended the "girl in a jacket" website yesterday afternoon, although the video remained online following negative comments from YouTube users, after the Herald revealed it was an ad masquerading as a genuine appeal.
"Heidi" is not a real person, but a model who starred in Witchery's spring-summer 2007 campaign, according to one of the retailer's employees.
Another video, which was posted by Tourism Queensland purportedly showing a woman who tattooed an ad for the Great Barrier Reef on her arm to win a dream island job, has been exposed as an employee of its advertising agency. That video has also been removed and Tourism Queensland has apologised for deceiving the public.
Despite the potential damage such exposure might wreak on the brands, marketing experts agree that companies will continue to use popular sites such as YouTube for their marketing. Only in future they will tread more carefully, said expert Tim Burrowes of mumbrella.com.au, who exposed the tourism video as a hoax. "What we are seeing here is an evolving etiquette of the web. Some get it, some don't."
Telstra has turned to internet site Twitter, which alerts users to the latest post, to neutralise people writing negative comments about it on internet sites. The only problem is that it used an automated response rather than an individual reply. "Basically that turned into spam from Telstra because they forgot that the internet is a two-way conversation," Mr Burrowes said.
Posing as an ad isn't the crime but crossing the line between all out lying and being clever is, says David Whittle of digital agency Mark. He cites the video of graffiti artists "tagging"' the US presidential jet Air Force One in 2006 with the words "still free" as an example of a successful ad.
The interest the video generated on the web prompted the White House to deny presidential security had been breached and the resulting publicity brought kudos to the clothing brand behind the stunt, which was orchestrated by Australian adman Dave Droga. "When it was revealed to be … an ad, no one was angry because it was so well done," Mr Whittle said.
The internet is just playing catch-up with other media, says RMIT University's John Lenarcic, an expert on the ethical and social effects of the web. "When Orson Welles first read War Of The Worlds on the radio [in 1938] people thought it was a real invasion until it was revealed [to be a radio play]."
Neither Witchery nor its agency, Surry Hills-based Naked Communications, returned calls from the Herald.