New Zealand online electricity retailer Powershop has taken a shot at US presidential hopeful Donald J Trump, in a new viral video clip featuring various Kiwi kids sporting the Republican candidate’s trademark golden quiff and spouting some of his innumerable, offensive Trump-isms.
Powershop – which is owned by NZ gentailer Meridian Energy, and whose disruptive online retail model has been hugely successful in Australia – says the video is meant to illustrate the importance of power being used for good and not evil.
As viral marketing gambits go, it works on some levels: Powershop has essentially built its business on the idea of taking the power back from big business and electricity market incumbents and putting it back in the hands of the people.
“The hatred of power companies, both networks and retailers, is so palpable,” Powershop Australia CEO Ben Burge told the Disruption and the Energy Industry conference last year. “There is a deep satisfaction the customer will get by shifting the power base.”
Nevertheless, it’s unusual for a small Antipodean company to be so overtly political.
As Powershop chief executive Ari Sargent has explained it, Trump “likes to abuse his power and influence to promote his prehistoric views about minority groups of society.
“Our video parodies Mr Trump by projecting his own words through the mouths of loveable toddlers to highlight how infantile he is.”
Whether it has achieved this goal will no doubt be debated on the socials.
Catch our latest clip – Kiwi kids trumping Trump. Now that’s power you CAN love. pic.twitter.com/rFHb6FAPyA
— Powershop NZ (@powershop) May 11, 2016
