Well, I just learned my lesson when it comes to challenging Telstra.
This week I wrote a piece titled I Demand Telstra Make A 5G Gin. This was off the back of T-Mobile in the U.S. doing just that – making and selling a gin.
I thought it would be a silly shitpost and we would all move on with our lives. After all, it was basically just a few hundred words of weak arguments as to why Telstra should make gin. Not exactly hard hitting stuff.
But then a couple of things happened.
While the focus of the article was on Telstra, I did mention the other two big Aussie telcos. In fact, I told Optus and Vodafone to call me if they would like to collab on a tasty beverage.
Optus took that challenge and sent me a bottle of Forty Spotted gin. This was a cheeky play and very well done:
But then Telstra decided to come to the party. And its move was the spiritual equivalent of ‘hold my beer’. Well, gin.
Just look at what arrived at my house a mere seven hours after the article published:
So today I wrote a cheeky post asking @Telstra to make a 5G gin.
AND THEN THIS SHOWED UP AT MY HOUSE!!!! pic.twitter.com/eWxOB2sUTF
— Tegan Jones (@Tegan_Writes) June 24, 2021
“Tegan, please enjoy some of our latest mlWave technology,” the note reads.
Attached was a bottle Margaret River Distilling Co gin that had been rebranded to Telstra 5G(in).
Unsurprisingly, this absolutely sent me.
Of course, it’s a smart marketing move. After all, I splashed it all over social and am now writing this follow up.
I’m also someone who is notoriously hard on Australian telcos. If any of them do something that will negatively impact their customers, I jump on it.
In all honesty, I’ve always assumed I’m rather disliked by most telcos. And that’s fine because pissing companies off tends to mean you’re doing your job as a journalist.
But at the end of the day companies are also made up of human beings. So it’s cool that some good eggs arranged such a fun response to an article.
Regardless of how you feel about large businesses, you absolutely have to respect the commitment to the bit on this one.
Well played, Telstra.