Whitewash whisper leaves Tingle in the ear
(Credit: The West Australian)

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We think we might have stumbled across the corporate public relations world’s equivalent of whisper marketing, that sinister form of product promotion where marketers go undercover as supermarket shoppers and suggest products to unsuspecting customers.

After writing a yarn earlier this month about the sell-off of Australian lawnmowing business Victa, one HOTT operative received a call from a fellow who identified himself as Greg Tingle.

Tingle hold our operative he had an interesting idea for a “follow up” from the perspective of some Australian business who are doing the opposite to selling out.

He said he had a few “friends” who owned some local businesses, including a suburban Perth office furniture outlet, that were doing “great things” for the Australian economy and suggested our operative might like to do a story.

When queried as to what exactly these businesses were doing that was so extraordinary and how he was connected, he mumbled something along the lines that he was a friend through a business acquaintance before crowing about how these acquaintances were “creating Australian jobs and keeping money in Australia”.

Tingle’s suggestions got buried in the to-do basket. But another HOTT operative received and email this week from the same Tingle again spruiking the many virtues of the suburban office furniture outfit.

Only this time, he signed off “Greg Tingle - director, Media Man Australia”. Media Man is a marketing and public relation company.