Who am I writing for?
Image: Andy Todd via Wikimedia Commons (licence)
It can be a fraught matter, trying to ‘set the tone’ of a piece of writing. And when you’re trying to sell or promote something, your ear needs to be well calibrated to what your audience likes to hear.
So it was interesting to read some feedback from a member of the target audience for promotional materials issued by Cricket Australia a couple of months back. CA sent out some media releases promoting the launch of its summer domestic Big Bash competition, presumably in an effort to get sections of the sporting media to talk up the event and generate some free publicity.
Given that cricket writers are a rather staid and conservative bunch, you would think a complementarily reserved tone might be in order. Not so Cricket Australia. See Greg Baum’s splenetic article for all the cringeworthy detail. Suffice to say the media releases were written (poorly) more for an audience of skateboarders with their pants on backwards than the tweedy types who typically take an interest in the domestic rivalries of the Sheffield Shield.
Granted, Cricket Australia is trying to attract more of the former and less of the latter to the games, but the teenagers aren’t the audience for a media release. The media are. And they don’t like it. They think (perfectly correctly) that the Big Bash competition stands in relation to proper cricket as the Big Mac stands in relation to prime Angus eye fillet.
So to hector one’s audience with nonsense about ‘pumping urban beats’ (no, I do not know what these are, and nor do I care to) or assertions concerning ‘super-cool, all-out-attacking attitudes’ will rather queer one’s pitch if the goal is to persuade, or at least to mollify.
But perhaps the goal of Cricket Australia’s copywriters was to start a fight? At least they got some coverage, even if it was overwhelmingly negative. This summer we’ll find out who Cricket Australia’s true audience is.
