By Dominic Powell and Emma Koehn.
Fashion retailer Myer has been forced to apologise and redact an advertisement featuring pop star Katy Perry after she offended veterinarians and animal activists by inviting her pet dog to “go chase some koalas”.
The ad was part of Myer’s campaign and tour sponsorship with the singer, reports The Courier Mail, in which Perry invites fans to win free tickets to her show, before saying “Let’s go chase some koalas, Nugget!”.
Nugget is Perry’s teacup poodle.
A spokesperson for Myer told The Courier Mail “We are aware of comments in relation to Katy Perry’s Witness: The Tour advertisement and a particular reference made to koalas”.
“We are currently removing the material which references koalas,” the spokesperson said. Dog attacks on koalas are one of the biggest threats to the animals in regional Australia, wildlife vet Claire Madden told The Courier Mail.
“Katy Perry I challenge you to come and spend a day with me (a wildlife vet) and learn first hand why your comment should NOT be streamed across the nation,” Madden said.
Coca Cola’s Australian distributor Coca-Cola Amatil has suffered a setback on the launch of its new “no sugar” product, as Fairfax reports Woolworths will not be selling the product.
Woolworths cited a lack of customer demand for the new style Coke, with a spokesperson telling Fairfax “We have taken the decision to not range this product at this time.”
“Our customers looking for a no-sugar or low-sugar cola option have ample choice already in the category across a range of different pack sizes and formats.”
Meanwhile, Fairfax also reports this morning Domino’s Pizza will be moving its beverages contract away from Coca-Cola Amatil and on to Pepsi/Schweppes, cutting off selling all beverages related to the company.
Image sharing service Snapchat is taking another step in the fight against Instagram, introducing the ability to add links to individual “Snaps”, reports TechCrunch.
Snapchat previously only allowed images that were paid advertisements to feature links, but now businesses may be able to reach a broader audience through individual Snapchat users, because they will be able to share external websites with their friends for the first time.
A new “backdrops” function will also let users put patterns and icons in the backgrounds of pictures they take and share.
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