The boss of Australia’s biggest ad spender, Gerry Harvey of Harvey Norman fame, has used radio time on the Nine-owned 2GB and 3AW to oddly defend Optus’ latest stuff-up.
The telco, of course, suffered a 16-hour outage last Wednesday that infuriated longtime customers. Yesterday, Optus chiefs blamed the incident on “routing information” following a software upgrade at the telco.
However, Harvey, the 84-year-old billionaire retailer, used ad time to defend the maligned telco.
In a voiceover in the ad, Harvey declared: “Optus, Optus. Kick them when they’re down – really? I thought Australians were better than that. It could happen to any company, could be your turn next time.”
He goes on to say that Optus, which is a commercial partner, will continue to receive support at its stores.
“Yes, we will support Optus,” Harvey said.
“If you think Optus is getting a raw deal, then you think like us. Need a new phone? It’s an Optus deal at Harvey Norman. Tell them Gerry sent you.”
Defending the ad, Harvey later told 6PR Perth: “You get a situation where you’re the CEO of a public company, and it could happen to any public company, the CEO doesn’t run the IT department.”
