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Category: Federal Government / Government and Politics / Business, Economics and Finance / Advertising / Information and Communication

Finance Department spends thousands on 'excruciating' recruitment video

Wednesday, 1 Mar 2017 11:44:28 | Henry Belot

A still from the Finance Department's "Meet the Game Changers" advertisement. (YouTube: Together Creative)

The Finance Department has paid thousands of dollars for a recruitment video which has been slammed by marketing experts as "excruciating, cliched and a new low".

The video refers to Finance Department graduates as "game-changers" and features them boasting about "paleo pear and banana bread" and buddy workshop groups for recruits.

"No thanks, that's a little bit fancy for me," said one worker offered the paleo bread, who had to dash off to "an Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander network meeting".

Another said he was "so stoked about his presentation to the executive" while another said they had never imagined they would work on "a project supporting the modernisation program across Government".

Tender documents reveal the Department of Finance paid Sydney-based marketing company Together Creative $37,400 for marketing services.

Still from Finance Department advertisement Photo: A marketing expert described the video as "fake and plastic". (YouTube: Together Creative)

It is not yet clear how much of this money went towards the video.

Marketing expert Andrew Hughes said it was the worst Government video he had ever seen and described it as a waste of money.

"I was over the clichés in the first 20 seconds it was hard to watch, there was too much information, it was badly put together, fake and plastic," Dr Hughes said.

"Maybe that was the brief from the Department, though so I am not really sure who should get a gun to the head for this one."

Dr Hughes said Finance would have been better off just asking graduates to film their day on their smartphones.

"I see what they were trying to do, but they verbalised the entire thing and it comes across as tokenistic and lacks total believability," he said.

Still from Finance Department's advertisement Photo: The Finance Department paid $37,500 to a Sydney agency for "marketing services". (YouTube: Together Creative)

Creative director of the Labor-aligned agency Creative Edge, Dee Madigan said the video was "hilariously bad".

"They have reinforced every horrible notion you have ever heard about the public service," she said.

"Real people are not very good at playing real people because they can never deliver real performances and sound wooden."

Ms Madigan said the video was way too long and was plainly "not a good idea".

Together Creative and the Finance Department have been contacted for comment.

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