Rowan Dean: Why I will never use Colgate-Palmolive in my house
I have always been a loyal customer of Colgate-Palmolive products. I used to work for them. But this week they aligned themselves with left-wing trolls, and they are no longer welcome in my house, writes Rowan Dean
Opinion
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My Easter resolution is to not brush my teeth, not wash my hands and not do the dishes anymore — at least not using any Colgate-Palmolive products.
I shall be scrupulous from now on that there will be no Colgate toothpaste or dental products, no Palmolive soaps and no Ajax ending up in my shopping trolley.
Last Thursday I got a shock when the following tweet came up on my phone, from a Twitter account called Colgate Smile, or @Colgate. It’s the official Twitter account of Colgate-Palmolive Australia and has over 70,000 followers. The tweet itself was addressed to two other Twitter accounts, both of them hardcore left-wing activists: Sleeping Giants Oz and Aushiker.
The tweet said: “Colgate-Palmolive Australia will no longer advertise on Sky News.”
So, what’s the big deal? Well, let’s be clear what this was — an official announcement by Colgate-Palmolive Australia addressed specifically to left-wing online activists who boast that they want to shut down Sky News (owned by News Corp, publisher of The Daily Telegraph) by depriving us of our advertising revenue.
An online group of trolls who constantly accuse Sky — and therefore our viewers — of being morally inferior to them.
Now, it’s a free world. People can advertise wherever they like. Many companies choose to advertise on Sky News because they know it’s a cost-effective way to reach a large, intelligent, engaged and often affluent audience. If people choose not to advertise on Sky, that’s entirely their choice. But this was very different.
For many years I worked for Colgate-Palmolive here and around the world. During the 1990s I directed their most popular Aussie ad campaign, the wonderfully cartoonish Spray n’ Wipe ads featuring Paula Duncan set to the catchy “So thank you, Spray n’ Wipe” jingle.
I know Colgate-Palmolive’s products and brands intimately. I have always been a loyal customer. But that stopped the moment I read that tweet.
Because Colgate-Palmolive Australia have specifically announced to the world that they wish to be publicly aligned with a grubby group of hardcore left-wing trolls who hide behind anonymity and algorithms — and against a mainstream business, Sky News, that employs a large number of people, including many young kids, from all walks of life, and provides information and entertainment, and politics of all flavours, to many appreciative Australian and New Zealand viewers.
Colgate-Palmolive Australia no longer advertises with Sky News.
— Colgate Smile (@Colgate) April 17, 2019
Worse, Colgate-Palmolive Australia have publicly aligned themselves with a campaign to stop average people from watching the shows they choose to. Colgate-Palmolive are proclaiming that they believe themselves to be morally superior not only to everyone who works at Sky News, but morally superior to Sky’s viewers.
The online “deplatforming” campaign that Colgate-Palmolive has chosen to be associated with is run by the laughably-named Sleeping Giants. One of their most obsessive supporters is Andrew Priest (@Aushiker) who is also mentioned in Colgate’s tweet and who is an academic at Edith Cowan University in WA.
Andrew Priest has tweeted about Sky News not just a few times but more than 20,000 times! He clearly has a lot of time on his hands. And he seems not to give a rats that for many years Sky News has generously offered internships to students from Edith Cowan University to help them become journalists and producers.
Sleeping Giants and other moral pygmies like them represent only a relative handful of people, as was seen when they recently held a demonstration in Sydney and a pathetic and motley handful of individuals turned up.
Worse, look online and you’ll soon see that the sort of anonymous trolls who tend to follow these activist groups are frequently anti-mainstream Australian values, anti-Christian, anti-Israel, anti-conservative, anti-Australia Day, anti-Anzac, anti-Libs, anti-capitalism and anti-much more besides. Many of them wouldn’t know a bar of Palmolive soap if they slipped over it in the shower.
Somebody might care to ask Colgate-Palmolive who will stand up for them when those same trolls turn their anti-capitalist bile against Colgate’s business activities at some point in the future. It would have been people like me. No longer.
From now on, no Colgate-Palmolive toothpastes, soaps, detergents or other products are welcome in my home. Put simply, if a business that I have loyally supported and worked for aligns itself with activists who wish to destroy my livelihood as well as destroy the enjoyment of my viewers, well, I take it personally.
People often ask me how we can fight back against the long march of the left through our once-respected institutions and companies.
Shopping trolleys are as good a place to start as any. Major brands must learn that having anything to do with online bullies like Sleeping Giants is the kiss of marketing death.
Rowan Dean hosts Outsiders on Sky News with Rita Panahi and James Morrow.