Brisbane City Council - flushing $s down the drain ...

... all in the name of environmental awareness.

If you thought Toowoomba City Council were good at wasting ratepayers' money, Brisbane City Council is about to take flushing money down the drain to new heights.

Excerpt from the Courier Mail:

15 October 2007

Brisbane City Council may ask US pop star Justin Timberlake to front a $670,000 marketing blitz to promote its climate change campaign.

See - Watch BCC waste your money.

Brisbane City Council's proposed 'Green Heart' campaign involves such brilliantly conceived marketing ideas to raise environmental awareness as:

- asking pop star Justin Timberlake to wear a tshirt with 'I love BNE' at his concerts later this month. He's unlikely to do it out of the goodness of his heart.

- plastering 'I love BNE' on rubbish trucks, buses and in advertisements - this will encourage community pride and environmental awareness.

Putting an 'I love BNE' sign on a rubbish truck will encourage community pride and environmental awareness? Doubtful.

But wait - it gets better:

- there would be a series of Valentine's Day messages in newspaper classifieds dedicated to Brisbane.

- there would also be a 'Put Your Love to the Test' quiz with inane questions like: "If Brisbane had a booger in its nose, would you: A. discreetly mention it; B. pretend it wasn't there; or C. laugh loudly and point it out to everyone?".

Surely they jest?!

Cr Newman said there were some "very exciting" ideas in the plan but he was not convinced about the proposal to approach Timberlake.

He also said "what we're after is a campaign that has real punch, that really gets through to people."

Better head back to the drawing board ...