Bang, clink. What was that? That was the sound of Lara Bungle – sorry, Bingle – shooting herself in the foot just before her engagement rings falls to the floor. It’s fair to say that this woman is not about to set herself up as a business guru any time soon.
Okay, maybe her career had slowed, but she had a fiance and 4.7 carats on her finger and a $6 million Bondi apartment she shared with her now ex-fiance according to latest news reports.
It all started with the publication of a photo of her taken whilst she was in the shower by her ex, AFL footballer/knuckle-scraper Brendan Fevola. He allegedly released the pic to his mates (as you do) and it ended up in a magazine. Bingle became a victim and garnered considerable sympathy. She said she would sue Fevola, and no one blamed her for that.
Then celebrity publicist Max Markson rode into town and swept her up and away from Sympathy straight into Desolation. Instead of building on the sympathy vote, his representation has managed to turn the entire country against her, which is perhaps not the marketing solution she had hoped for. Having announced that he would transform her into a $1 million multimedia package, even talking about a spin-off reality television show, Markson managed to secure a reported $200,000 for a tell-all interview for Bingle with Woman’s Day magazine. If the intention was to create even more sympathy regarding the boorish behaviour of Fevola, it didn’t quite pan out that way. Seen as cashing in, Miss Bingle instantly lost her victim status.
Not the desired marketing solution
For one thing, Bingle is throwing stones at Fevola from inside her own glass house, which is never a good personal marketing strategy. She should have remembered that she was seen as a marriage-wrecker at the time, as Fevola was not single. She might also have paused to assess the current view of her, which from some angles is that she is a money-obsessed WAG to her ex fiance Michael Clarke, cruising around in an Aston Martin whilst sporting an engagement ring that cost half the price of an average Aussie house.
It’s also been noted that Clarke’s cricketing career has not been helped by their relationship; in fact, according to the media he has been told by cricketing officials that if he doesn’t sort his head out very soon, he won’t be playing Test cricket any more.
In New Zealand at the time, Clarke had stern words with Bingle following the magazine story and Bingle was then seen leaving their Bondi pad and heading off to stay with friend and DJ Carl Kennedy. Clarke then left his Australian teammates and returned to Sydney to an empty home, although Clarke’s agent, Chris White, has denied that the marriage is off.
The other problem Bingle has to contend with, apart from being susceptible to bad advice, being happy in adulterous relationships, and being a blatant WAG, is that she doesn’t seem to be too bright, even for a 22 year old. Whilst this can win the “aahh bless” vote from some people, it can become very irritating when practiced as an art.
Case in point: when she became the face of the “Where the Bloody Hell Are You” campaign, The Daily Telegraph asked her how she felt about being a Cronulla girl projecting a positive image of Australia just months after the race riots that so badly marred the Sydney suburb. Instead of actually knowing about the riots, or even pretending to – given that they had been stated as a fact by the journalist – she chose to admit that she had been modelling underwear in Italy and was not aware that any riots had taken place. In other words, she didn’t keep up with the news and none of her friends considered it important enough to mention to her, which either says something about their priorities, or reveals that they don’t think the presentation of such facts, or conversations of that sort, are worth bothering with where Bingle is concerned. Much as you wouldn’t waste your breath giving a seminar on grammar and syntax to George Bush.
As for Markson, on second thoughts, perhaps he’s actually more of a business strategist than we give him credit for – except that his eye is on his own business rather than his clients’. If Bingle did receive $200,000 for her story, he’s likely to have earned over 10% of that for himself.
In Bingle’s defence, celebrities shouldn’t really have to ask whether the publicity that their publicist is planning is likely to screw their career; it should be taken as read that publicity is intended to prolong a career and provoke a positive public response.
